NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 5, Reuter: Police arrested more than 200 Sikhs trying to march to Parliament from a Sikh gurdwara in the heart of the Indian Capital on Saturday to press demands for political concessions in Punjab.
Reuter photographer Richard Ellis said the arrested were part of a crowd of about 500 Sikhs who ‘were stopped by police from marching to Parliament from a gurdwara in the afternoon.
The 200 arrested Sikhs were taken away in buses, while the remaining protesters were persuaded by the police to peacefully return to the Gurdwara, Ellis added.
There was no immediate comment from the police,
The incident was the latest bid by militant Sikhs to stage a sti-in near Parliament to demand a settlement of their demands in the
Troubled north Indian State of Punjab.
Police had earlier in the day taken steps against the planned protest by arresting five Sikh leaders, including Prakash Singh Badal, a former Punjab Chief Minister who was freed from detention on Wednesday.
They were arrested in the Punjab State Capital of Chandigarh under preventive laws to prevent them from carrying out their plan to stage a sit-in protest near the New Delhi Parliament.
The first attempt by the Sikhs Was foiled on Friday when police stopped 2,000 Sikhs from marching to Delhi. They detained about 400 protestors; including Badal one day after Punjab officials banned the proposed march because they feared unrest in Delhi.
“It is the suppression of rights of the people in Punjab and Sikhs in particular”, Badal said.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 11, 1987
