CHANDIGARH, India A Sikh priest was hacked to death and a Sikh dissident died of gunshot lay as local members of the Congress Party demanded federal intervention in Punjab state to halt escalating terrorism, Village council chief Davinder Pal was shot along with three other leaders of the Nirankari sect by six persons armed with automatic les Thursday. The other three were killed instantly, Pal died Friday in the hospital in the Punjab town of. Dharamkot, Deputy Inspector General of Police MS. Bhullar said.
Near the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, unidentified gunmen raided a temple after midnight, tied up all five people present and escaped after hacking the priest to death, state police said, The priest was identified as Gurbaksh Singh.
‘The Congress Party, the opposition party in the state but the ruling party nationally, said lawlessness has “assumed alarming proportions” since the installation of a new state government of Sikh moderates more than five months
ago. ‘A resolution approved by party leaders at a meeting in Chandigarh said the federal government should “effectively intervene” in Punjab, It did not explain if intervention meant dis sisal of the state administration and imposition of direct federal rule.
‘The statement came a day after gunmen assassinated three leaders of the Nirankari sect: in hit and run attacks in Punjab, India’s breadbasket and center of a Sikh separatist campaign.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 21, 1986
