AMRITSAR, Punjab, India April 27, Reuter: Police clamped a curfew on the North Indian city of Amritsar on Wednesday for the funeral of a Hindu militant killed by unknown gunmen.
Police said Amritsar, the Sikh holy city, was very tense after the shooting of a Hindu Shiv Sena member on Tuesday.
They feared the funeral could spark reprisals in the city where Shiv Sena (Shivaji’s Army) has called a protest strike, and they said only 25 mourners would be allowed to attend the cremation.
Gunmen fighting for a separate Sikh state in Sikh majority Punjab struck twice during the night, killing a Sikh ex-serviceman and another man near Amritsar.
The deaths bring the toll from the violence so far this year to 725 compared with 283 in the first four months of 1987.
Meanwhile, an angry mob beat to death a gunman who shot dead a shopkeeper at a crowded marketplace on Tuesday in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, police said.
Police in Chandigarh, capital of the north Indian state of Punjab, said three gunmen opened fire with revolvers and an assault rifle before fleeing, but the crowd caught up with one of them and set upon him.
Gunmen killed six others on Monday night in separate incidents across Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 29, 1988
