NEW DELHI, India— Security has been tightened in the capital and on railways and buses in Punjab following a bomb blast on a train that killed two people and injured 22 others, police said Sunday. Police sources blamed Sikhs and said that separatists were active again and tried to create panic by planting a bomb that exploded Friday night on a train near the border between Punjab and Haryana states. Train and bus passengers in the capital, Punjab and Haryana were warned not to touch unclaimed objects which could be booby-traps with explosives. All trains starting in the Sikh dominated state of Punjab were being inspected and searched before passengers were allowed to board, a Punjab government statement said. Security also was tightened at other public facilities.
Punjab police said two youths planted a bomb Friday night in the luggage rack of a train. The explosion killed two men when it ripped hole in the roof of a compartment packed with migrant laborers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.
Last May 10 and 11, transistor radio bombs exploded in trains, buses and public places in New Delhi and north India, killing about 90 people. On Sept. 22, three slum dwellers in the capital were killed when they picked up a transistor radio packed with explosives, police said:
Sikhs are demanding an independent Sikh nation in Punjab and oppose a “sell out” agreement signed last July by the Indian government and Sikh moderates.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 29, 1985
