AMRITSAR, Punjab, India, Nov, 14, Reuter: Punjab police on Friday shot dead two leaders of a Sikh group in police custody when their comrades allegedly tried to free them in an ambush, police said.
Two others described as ambushers were also killed.
LP.Birdi, Police Chief in Punjab’s northern Gurdaspur district, named the dead as Tarsem Singh Kohar, a General of the rebel Khalistan Liberation Army, and his second-in-command, Sukhdev Singh.
Birdi repeated the usual stock story when he said police escorting the two men, arrested in August, 1986, were attacked as they left a farm where they had gone {0 conduct investigations.
Sukhdev and an attacker were killed immediately and Tarsem and another ambusher were shot 40 minutes later after a chase.
The Khalistan Liberation Force Army is one of the smallest of 22 Sikh groups fighting for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab.
Nearly 1,100 people have been killed this year in Punjab violence related to the campaign for an independent Khalistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 20, 1987
