K. Sundarji; Former Chief of Indian Army

Krishnawami Sundarji, the former Indian army chief who led the deadly 1984 raid on Sikhdom’s holiest shrine--an action that ultimately led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi--has died at age 69.

Sundarji, an expert on mobile infantry fighting who had much of his training in the United States, died Monday night in an army hospital in New Delhi, Press Trust of India said Tuesday. The agency said he had colon cancer.

Sundarji’s role in the storming of the Golden Temple of Amritsar, which according to unofficial estimates left 3,800 people dead, continued to haunt him after he retired.

He was on the hit list of Sikh separatists who succeeded in killing other officers involved in the raid. Later that year, Gandhi was slain by her Sikh bodyguards for ordering the raid.

Sundarji was commissioned in the Indian army in 1946 and served as the army chief of staff between 1986 and 1998. Described as a “thinking general,” he pushed for the modernization of the army in the 1980s.

His penchant for what he described as “pure mobile warfare” dated to his attendance at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.

Sundarji’s career was marred by his alleged involvement in a gun purchase scandal that caused the fall of the government of Indira Ghandi’s son, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in 1989. After Sundarji’s tenure ended, he wrote regularly on defense issues in Indian newspapers.