CHANDIGARH, India: 22 persons, including three members of a family and a freedom fighter were gunned down during the past 24 hours taking the number of killings in the first two days of April to 61. 15 persons were killed in the Amritsar district, two in Gurdaspur and three in Faridkot district. A bank guard was shot dead in Ludhiana. At least 6 persons were gunned in indiscriminate firing by gunmen in the border village of Ranghar. Rashtria Surakhya Samati bandh to protest against the killings in Amritsar evoked mixed response. All major markets in the city remained closed. A freedom fighter was allegedly shot in an encounter in which two others were injured at Kala Ke village in Jandiala police station in Amritsar district. The injured freedom fighters managed to escape. The police reportedly recovered a Chinese AK47 rifle, a Thompson machine gun, a motor cycle along with large amount of ammunition from the spot.
The gunmen forced their entry in the house of Kartar Singh, at Jaimal Singh Wala in Faridkot and opened fired, killing him, his daughter in law and daughter. Over a dozen gunmen raided adjacent two villages in Gurdaspur district and gunned down two aged persons who had stayed back while their families migrated some time ago.
A report from Ludhiana says that two motorcycle boume gunmen fired at a three wheeler carrying a bank guard, Malkiat Singh and two other bank employees and a cast of Rs. 30,000. The bank guard was killed on the spot and the gunmen escaped with the cash.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 8, 1988
