NEW DELHI, India, Sept. 12, Reuter: Police claimed to have foiled an attempt to blow UP @ state-owned oil depot in Punjab on Saturday, killing suspects and capturing seven, police said.
Two policemen were hurt in a Bun battle before dawn when security forces surrounded the Indian oil corporation depot in the district of Faridkot and opened fire on 11 ‘men hiding near it, the Press Trust of India reported.
The death brought to 40 the unofficial toll in Punjab this month in violence related to a campaign for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan (Land of the Pure).
More than 860 people have been killed this year compared with 640 in all of 1986.
In the Sikh holy city Amritsar, the Sikh temples’ Management Committee criticized four high priests for denouncing the community’s traditional political leadership and suppose the Readom fighters.
The Committee’s executive body, meeting at the religion’s holiest temple The Golden Temple, said the Priests used “highly objectionable” language about the traditional Sikh Akali Dal Party and had no right to make policy statements.
“The four priests had accused the Akali Dal of stabbing the Sikh people in the back by refusing to face the crisis of Sikhdom and urged Sikhs to support the freedom fighters “in order to free themselves from the shackles of slavery”.
They said 16 Sikh freedom fighting organizations shortly publish their joint objectives and program.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1987
