CHANDIGARH, India, May 21, Reuter: Thousands of panic stricken Hindu migrant labourers packed Punjab railway stations as they fled. a wave of killings, witnesses said on Saturday.
The militants fighting for an independent homeland in the northern state, have killed at least 55 Hindu labourers in attacks to avenge a paramilitary siege of their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar city.
About 155 people have been killed in a campaign for Khalistan —— land of the pure since Wednesday, when the Golden Temple siege ended with the surrender of 46 militants.
In the latest killings, gunmen burst into a farmhouse in the village of Gujranwala near Amritsar, on Saturday morning.
Police said the militants using AK47 assault rifles, shot dead nine labourers who had come — from Uttar Pradesh state to work on a canal project.
The workers are part of a force of Hindus who come to Punjab every year from nearby states to work on construction projects and farms.
Only hours before their allies surrendered at the Golden Temple after a 10day siege, militants killed 30 Hindus canal diggers at Ropar, near Chandigarh. They were working on the Sutlej Jamuna Link (SYL) Canal project.
Nearly 4,000 of the total 6,000 migrant labourers on the SYL project had fled to railway stations and the remainder were preparing to leave, police said. Work on the project had almost come to a standstill, they said.
“We are not even waiting to settle our dues with our employees”, said one labourer at the railway station.
Police said the militants left a note at Ropar threatening to carry their campaign of random killings and assassinations of opponents into neighbouring states, and to New Delhi.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1988
