NEW DELHI: Police raided Sikh temples and homes Saturday and arrested more than 100 suspects, including army officers, in a search for the assassins of two government officials, the Press Trust of India said.
Some of those arrested had definite “terrorist” connections, the domestic news agency said
A police spokesman in New Delhi declined to confirm or deny the report, which the Press Trust attributed to “police sources.”
Sikh temple officials confirmed police entered New Delhi’s Rakabganj temple at 4.a.m. to search for suspects, but said they did not know of any arrests.
The Press Trust said about 24 of the suspects including a senior army officer, could have been involved in the assassinations of Parliament member Lalit Maken and Delhi Councilman Arjun Dass. The news agency said the suspects included army officers and government official but did not identify them or say how many.
The two members of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s ruling congress were killed for their alleged roles instigating anti Sikh riots last November following the assassination of Gandhi’s mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
Lalit was killed July 31 and Arjun Dass on Sept.4 by men firing submachine guns. The killers fled on motor scooters.
The police sources quoted by the Press Trust said two of the three killers of Maken were identified as Bakhshish Singh and Harjinder Singh Jinda, both Sikhs from Amritsar district in the northern state of Punjab, where militant Sikhs would like to set up a separate state.
The two men were also suspects in the murder of Dass.”
“We have been on the trial of the killers, but unfortunately we missed it at certain places in Punjab,” the Press Trust quoted one source as saying.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 28, 1990
