NEW DELHI, India, July 14, Reuter: In Punjab, a patrol of 17 police and paramilitary security men shot dead five Sikh freedom fighters in what are generally believed to be stage-managed encounters near Ferozepur, close to the Pakistan border. Police claimed that a submachine gun, three revolvers and a rifle were recovered a routine practice with the police. “They plant weapons on the dead to justify their action”, say usually knowledgeable circles in Punjab. Struggle by Sikhs campaigning for an independent religious homeland in Punjab named Khalistan “Land of the Pure” has reached its bloodiest level this month since June, 1984, when the army stormed the Golden Temple at Amritsar. More than 6,000 people were killed in that operation. Bus ambushes this week in Punjab and neighboring Haryana state 70 passengers were the bloodiest incidents since then in the Sikh unrest.

Meanwhile, one person was stabbed to death, four were injured and 50 arrested when Hindus and Moslems battled with knives, bottles and stones in Old Delhi last night, police said today.

The trouble in Delhi erupted in the walled city, where Hindus and Moslems live crowded together, when police briefly lifted a curfew imposed last week after an earlier clash between Hindus and Moslems.

Police said they fired two shots in the air, lobbed tear gas grenades and made repeated charges with bamboo canes to disperse crowds throwing bottles, stones and other missiles at each other. The dead man, who was dragged into a narrow lane and stabbed to death by a group of men, was not identified.

There was no immediate explanation for the violence, but the old city has been a flashpoint since early last year when rivalry over a disputed shrine at Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh raised tension between minority Moslems and majority Hindus in north India to fever pitch.

About 14 people were killed in Hindu Moslem riots in Old Delhi in May. The area has been under almost permanent curfew since then, patrolled by police with troops on standby.

More than 100 people were killed in a major outbreak of Hindu Moslem violence in the northern city of Meerut in May and six more died in another flare up there last week.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 17, 1987