NEW DELHI, India, Dec.6: Three Sikh temples were under curfew in the Indian capital today following a week of violence sparked by Sikh bids for self-defense which climinated in rioting, gunfire and police action that left up to eight people dead.

Three policemen were crushed to death by a speeding truck driven by Sikh youth and police opened fire near the largest Sikh shrine in the capital in some of the worst violence in the capital in recent ‘months.

The week of anti Sikh riots and protests across north India began with the murder on Sunday of 22 Hindus in the northern state of Punjab by four gunmen.

Authorities put the army on full alert in the capital and the Press Trust of India (PTI) said members of the Indian cabinet, including Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi met last night to discuss the incidents, ‘New Delhi’s gold domed Bangla Sahib Temple was ringed by about 500 policemen early today. It was here yesterday where witnesses said a Sikh youth drove a truck into a group of paramilitary police, killing three of them. Then, in what the PTI termed a near rebellion by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel”, at least two people were dragged from the truck and beaten to death, Delhi policemen and reporters manhandled, and several vehicles transporting Sikhs damaged by CRPF men.

PTI said two other people were killed by police gunfire. but witnesses in the temple complex reported eight fatalities.

‘A Delhi police spokesman confirmed six deaths three CRPF constables, an occupant of the truck and two people killed by police bullets but told PTI, “We are still trying to ascertain if there fare any more causalities.’

At the Sis ganj Temple in Old Delhi, police fired 13 rounds in the air and reimposed a curfew after a ‘mob of stone throwing Hindus yesterday menaced the shrine.

Some 100 Sikhs armed with ‘Kirpan’ (curved. swords) faced about 8,000 stone throwing Hind Us on Tuesday night at the Shrine near Delhi’s Red Fort, Police imposed curfew and authorities put the army on standby after the incident.

A curfew was also imposed at the smaller Rakab ganj Temple near the Central Secretariat Buildings, the seat of the Indian Government.

The violence yesterday was touched off when police refused to allow several hundred Sikhs gathered at the Bangla Sahib Temple to join a commemorative procession.

Witnesses said the crowd began to throw stones at the police who responded with tear gas and then gunfire.

Suddenly the truck, which witnesses said’ was driven by a 14yearold boy, roared out of the temple complex past about 100 armed Delhi policemen. It chreened around a roundabout and smashed into a CRPF group, they said.

The outraged CRPF men, witnesses said, beat the four occupants of the truck with rifle butts and then scuffled with Delhi police, beating several senior officers and also a group of local reporters and who were being briefed at the time.

Tension has been high in North India, and particularly in New Delhi, since Sunday’s massacre in Punjab.

Delhi police defused a potentially violence provoking situation yesterday by arresting 105 people to prevent a procession from entering the capital with ashes of the victims of Sunday’s killings.

In Punjab, the Beleaguered minority state government has given itself extraordinary powers, put the army on alert and launched an intensive security crackdown to ‘quell the violence that has taken more than 650 lives so far this year.

Article extracted from this publication >> December 12, 1986