AMRITSAR, India : Police fired Saturday into a crowd of 5,000 Hindus who torched shops and battled police in a protest against Sikh freedom fighters’ attacks. ‘One person died in the police gunfire and 12 others were injured in the unrest.
The violence in Amritsar in Punjab state came during a one day strike called by the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu group, to protest the killings of eight Hindus ‘who were among nine victims of violent attacks on Friday.
Sikhs have waged a campaign to press their demands for independence for Sikh-dominated Punjab; Police said Friday’s violent attacks may have been to protest against land-swap deal with Haryana state that included the transfer to Punjab of the city of Chandigarh.
The transfer was set for Saturday but was postponed “tentatively” by New Delhi Friday until July 15.
Police said thousands of Hindu protesters wielding iron bars and daggers swept through the old walled section of Amritsar 250 miles north of New Delhi, stoning shops that refused to close in observance of the strike.
Four shops were set fire with gasoline pumps.
Police said protesters threw rocks and battled officers, who fired shots into the air in two locations to disperse the mobs. At least two other protesters and three police officers were injured during the violence, police said.
Following the incidents, authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the section of Amritsar around the Golden Temple, the Sikh’s holiest shrine and the heart of the city considered holy by the Sikhs.
The postponed land exchange frustrated the implementation of an accord Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed with moderate Sikh leaders last year in a bid to resolve the religious minority’s economic and political grievances.
It was the second time the exchange fell through, on Jan. 26 and again this week.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 27, 1986
