AMRITSAR, INDIA, Nov 17, Reuter: Four Sikh Militants and two policemen were killed in an hour Jong gun-battle in North India’s Punjab State on Thursday, police said.
Among the dead was Baj Singh, a senior member of one of the top militant groups fighting for a separate homeland for India’s 15 million Sikhs, they said.
The Press Trust of India said the clash occurred in a village near the Sikh Holy City of Amritsar.
The Press Trust of India said the clash occurred in a village near the Sikh Holy City of Amritsar,
State Governor Siddhartha Shankar Ray meanwhile announced that elections to Panchayats in Punjab would begin in Punjab.
Minister Rajiv Gandhi imposed direct rule on Punjab, India’s premier agricultural state, in 1987 as part of his strategy to contain extremist violence.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in the violence this year, nearly double the 1987 total.
Ray said the elections, which Gandhi promised when he visited the state in September, would start at village level.
Elections to student unions, district bodies and finally a state assembly would follow, he said giving no further dates.
Student groups, among the militant’s strongest supporters, were suspended in 1984 after the Indian Army stormed the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1988
