NEW DELHI, India, June 15, Reuter: Religious and political leaders expressed outrage and shops closed in Delhi today in protest at violent shootings, including a machinegun attack on a child’s birthday party, which killed 14 people in the Indian capital.
Police checked vehicles in a hunt for two young Sikhs who killed 14 people and wounded about 20 in a shooting spree late on Saturday night through Delhi’s fashionable southern suburbs.
Gunmen also shot dead 15 people in five incidents over the weekend in Punjab, where the Sikhs are fighting to set up an independent Sikh State, police said.
The killings in Delhi, the worst carnage there in two years, outraged both Hindu and Sikh community leaders and brought a call for a protest strike today from the rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Many shops in South Delhi were closed but essential services worked normally.
Police offered a 100,000 rupee (7,000 dollar) reward for information about the killers.
State BJP Chief Madan Lal Khurana demanded Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi resign for failing to protect citizens.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 19, 1987
