NEW DELHI, India, Reuter, Dec. 15: Police clamped a dawn to dusk curfew on the Sikh Holy City of Amritsar today afier two nights of rioting following the murder of a Hindu politician.

Police loudspeaker vans toured the streets ordering people home as a general strike backed by all parties gripped the city of 600,000 inhabitants in protest at Saturday’s shooting of Kewal Krishna Bhatia and two other people.

 The curfew was imposed and schools, colleges and the university were closed after Bhatia’s mainly Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BIP) threatened violence against anyone who ignored the strike call.

 In Amritsar police set up check points across the city to impose the curfew.

 since Bhatia’s murder, fears of Sikh Hindu clashes have gripped the city, which has a Hindu majority but is holy to Sikhs as the site of their most sacred shrine the Golden Temple.

In June, Amritsar was clamped under curfew for 12 days after Sikh Hindu clashes that followed massacre of 12 Hindus in a city market.

Hindus stoned police and burnt vehicles after Bhatia’s killing on Saturday and rampaged again yesterday after 6.000 people attended his funeral.

 The riots overshadowed major police successes in the battle against the Sikhs whose campaign for an independent homeland in Punjab they call Khalistan (Land of the Pure) has cost 660 lives this year. State Police Chief Julio Ribeiro yesterday announced the capture of two of the top leaders and eight freedom fighters and the killing of three freedom fighters by police after an attempted robbery.

Ribeiro’s biggest catch was Dhana Singh, one of the five most wanted Sikhs leaders who are being implicated in cases involving violence. Dhana Singh, wanted on charges of treason, murder and conspiracy is a member of the Sikh “Panthic Committee” which last April shocked the country by proclaiming the formation of Khalistan from the Golden Temple.

He is the first member of the committee to be arrested.

Ribeiro also announced the capture of Amrik Singh, accused of organizing training centers for the freedom fighters in Pakistan, arming them and filtering them across the border into Punjab.

‘According to police sources Amrik Singh had returned from two years in Pakistan and his name ‘was mentioned repeatedly during interrogation of some 150 captured Sikhs questioned about training they were alleged to have received across the border.

Pakistan denies Indian charges that it has Sikh training camps.

On Friday, Gandhi told Indian army troops the camps existed and India would have “smashed” them but for its respect for international law.

Article extracted from this publication >> December 19, 1986