NEW DELHI, India: Police Monday arrested more than 12,000 supporters of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and scuffled with right-wing Hindu youths during a protest to press for the deployment of troops in violence torn Punjab state.

Thousands of flag and sign waving demonstrators chanted “Save Punjab! Deploy the army!” as they marched down Parliament Street in central New Delhi led by a truck equipped with blaring loudspeakers.

The protest was the largest of a series of rallies held over the past two weeks in the capital to demand that military be used to curb ‘Sikh separatist attacks in northern Punjab state,

The demonstration came as three gunmen shot and killed one Hindu and wounded a second in the town of Ludhiana.

The domestic Indian news agency quoted police as saying the dead man was relative of Jagdish Tangri, president of the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu organization.

Hundreds of people, most of them Hindus, have been killed since the beginning of the year by unidentified gunmen in the state of Punjab where Sikhs hold a slight majority. Hindus are a majority in India while Sikhs are a tiny but prosperous minority.

‘The marchers stopped before a platform set up on the sidewalk and listened in the sweltering heat to speeches by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders before advancing on hundreds of riot police lined across the street behind barricades of ropes and scaffolding.

City authorities had imposed a ban on demonstrations in the area behind the police line, but the protestors deliberately pushed through to be arrested.

Police said about 12,800 people were herded onto buses and arrested but later released.

At least one protester was slightly hurt when he jumped from the roof of a bus onto which he had climbed to wave other demonstrators through the police lines.

Scores of youths belonging to the Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu organization, charged past the buses and scuffled with officers at a second line of barricades. ‘Some of the youths hurled sticks at the police while others taunted them or lay down in the street and beat their chests as they shouted “Down with Rajiv Congress (I) Party.

The youths eventually surrendered to the police and were hauled away by buses.

The Shiv Sena has led protests in Punjab over the killing of Hindus allegedly by militants Sikh separatists in what officials have said is a concerted campaign to frighten the state’s minority community into fleeing.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 20, 1986