CHANDIGARH, India, April 25, (Reuter): Punjab police issued an alert and stepped up patrols today against possible bomb attacks by Sikh freedom fighters.
Police said freedom fighters arrested last week in the troubled northern Indian state had told them of plans to bomb social and religious gatherings of minority Hindus in Amritsar district.
Police warned people in the district around the Sikh Holy City, near the Pakistani border, not to touch suspicious objects left in public places.
Patrols by security forces inside the city, site of the Sikhs’ holy Golden Temple, had been increased they said.
Amnitsar district is often the scene of attacks by Sikhs fighting for a separate State in Punjab.
A campaign by militant Sikhs against the sale of liquor and tobacco had frightened Hindu villagers there, police said.
Militants have bumed hundreds of liquor and tobacco shops and attacked barber shops in the past month. The Sikh religion forbids drinking, smoking and the cutting of any body hair.
Police in Gurdaspur district said they had arrested nine people in the past week accused of threatening barbers and shopkeepers.
Police said gunmen shot dead a priest yesterday near Faridkot — town taking the toll this month to 71.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 1, 1987
