AMRITSAR, India: A top Sikh freedom fighter was shot to death by police Tuesday when he tried unsuccessfully to assassinate a Hindu leader, Punjab state police said.

In a separate incident, police captured another leading Sikh freedom fighter but shot him to death ‘when he tried to escape, the police said.

Police said the Hindu leader, BK Khullar, president of the Punjab Communal Amity Committee, was unhurt in the assassination attempt in a bazaar in Jullundur, 50 miles from Amritsar

They said three gunmen fired on Khullar whose two police bodyguards returned fire, killing the leader of the assailants, Balbir Singh and a Hindu passerby. A second attacker and the two bodyguards were wounded, police said.

It was the second unsuccessful attempt on Khullar’s life in less than a year. He also was unhurt in an attack last September in which his brother and a cousin were killed.

‘The Amity Committee he heads seeks to promote Sikh-Hindu ties in the troubled Punjab state.

Police said Balbir Singh was a leader of the Khalistan Commando Force group which is among a campaign to set up an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab to be called Khalistan,

Police said Balbir Singh was involved in the 1985 assassination of the Punjab president of the centrist Masses Party and in the recent killings of seven policemen at the Jullundur district courts.

In the court attack, the assailants escaped with three Sikh prisoners facing trial on charges on assassinating a prominent newspaper editor.

Punjab Deputy Inspector-General Dogra said a reward of $4.450 had been issued on Balbir Singh’s capture. Police said the reward will be given to the two wounded bodyguards.

Paramilitary police in Amritsar district captured another top Sikh freedom fighter and then shot him to death when he tried to escape city police chief HK.S. Kahlon said.

Kahion said the slain man, Hira Singh Sukha, was a lieutenant to Avtar Singh, chief of the Babbar Khaisa group. Avtar Singh was captured in Amritsar last week.

The Border Security Force, meanwhile, said 17 underground Sikh freedom fighters surrendered in Gurdaspur district, north of Amritsar. Three of them confessed that they had been trained and armed by neighboring Pakistan, a spokesman for the border force said in New Delhi.

In Calcutta, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said there are “positive signs” that the situation in Punjab is improving, He said his government is committed to a peaceful resolution of the five-year Punjab crisis.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 11, 1986