NEW DELHI, India, Jan. 23, Reuter: Unidentified gunmen shot dead seven sleeping people on Saturday in the second mass attack in 24 hours in North India’s Punjab State, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
At least one of the victims in the village of Deep Singh Wala was a woman; police in the State capital Chandigarh were quoted as saying.
Further details were not immediately available.
Gunmen shot dead 10 Hindus in Park in Barnala, 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Chandigarh on Friday.
Hours later two women were shot dead in Amritsar district, the news agency said.
Twenty people have died in the last two days in one of the worst outbreaks of violence since Sikhs: began their campaign for an independent homeland in the early 1980s.
Nearly 100 people have been so far this month, about 1,230 died in violent incidents in 1987.
Police have not identified any responsible for Saturday’s attack indicated whether the attacks were carried out by the same group.
The Press Trust of India said an called the Khalistan Liberation had claimed responsibility for the in Bamala, hometown of former Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala,
Authorities in the North Indian States of Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and the Delhi Capital territory were placed on maximum alert on Friday night.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 29, 1988
