AMRITSAR, INDIA, JUNE 4, REUTER — A reporter working for the Press Trust of India (PTI) News Agency was among four people on (Saturday reported Killed in Punjab where Sikh militants’ campaign for an independent homeland has claimed more than 1,200 lives this year.
Police said PTI reporter Parduman Singh, who also worked for some Punjabi newspapers, was shot dead by separatist gunmen riding a scooter in the town of Hoshiapur on Saturday morning.
At least six journalists, including a well-known’ editor, have been killed in Punjab since 1981.
PTI did not say why the reporter was a target but assassinations and random killings are common in Punjab’ where more than 1,230 people were killed last year.”
The news agency said two men trying to illegally cross the “training Sikh militants border with Pakistan were shot dead by security forces in Ferozepur district on Friday night while the body of a young woman was found in the same district.
The Indian government has accused Pakistan of arming and stepped up patrols along the border.
PTI said security forces arrested a militant leader who planned a “major action” and in a separate raid claimed to have unearthed an arms factory in a village in Bhatinda district.
A powerful bomb was also found planted at a railway station in Sonepat in Haryana.
Sikh militants ‘have intensified their campaign since last month when security forces laid siege to the Golden Temple. The holiest shrine of Sikhdom, in Amritsar.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 10, 1988
