AMRITSAR, Punjab, India: April 29, Reuter: Police and Sikh freedom fighters exchanged gunfire on Friday at the Golden Temple, holiest shrine of the Sikh faith, as mounting violence put police on alert in the North Indian State of Punjab.

In Batala, a market town of 110,000 people 40 km north of Amritsar, Hindus beat one Sikh to death and burned another alive in retaliation for bombings that left five people dead, police said.

The rising violence — at least 35 people have been killed in the past 24 hours — led officials to put the 70,000 local and paramilitary police on maximum alert against the militants fighting for an independent Sikh homeland.

The dead included women and teenagers across the prosperous Sikh dominated farming state of 18 million people.

Police in Amritsar said the gunfight at the sprawling temple, which is controlled by militants, began when a Sikh broke from custody at a police picket outside the temple and fled to shelter inside.

Gunmen on the temple ramparts exchanged fire with paramilitary police posted on nearby rooftops, police said.

Police sources said a British citizen, Swaran Kaur, of Birmingham, was injured in the crossfire, the woman was visiting Amnitsar to worship at the temple: and received superficial wounds, they said.

Police increased their pickets outside the temple earlier this week in what they said was a Response to increased violence. In June, 1984, the Indian army assaulted the temple killing 10,000 Sikhs pilgrims. The attack was ordered to appease the Hindu majority in order to make electoral gains for the ruling party.

In Batala, police imposed an indefinite curfew after the Hindu Sikh clash sparked by the explosion of four bombs. Police, who earlier told reporters the two Sikhs were beaten to death, blamed the bombings on the freedom fighters. First reports said four were killed by the bombs.

Police said many of the dead in the most recent attacks were dragged from their homes and shot. The victims included Hindus and Sikhs —— some accused by the gunmen of being police informers. Meanwhile a senior official of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (I) Party said on Saturday the situation in Punjab was “alarmingly explosive”.

In Batala, police imposed an indefinite curfew after the Hindu Sikh sparked by the explosion of four bombs. Police, who earlier told reporters the two Sikhs were beaten to death, blamed the bombings on the freedom fighters. First reports said four were killed by the bombs.

Police said many of the dead in the most recent attacks were dragged from their homes and shot. The victims included Hindus and. Sikhs some accused by the gunmen of being police informers.

This reporter who visited the Golden Temple after exchange of fire saw three bullet marks on the walls of Parkarma.

Some improvement trust employees who were working in that area had a miraculous escape, as they were caught in exchange of fire, The market area around Golden Temple was all deserted and looked like a scene of curfew.

Tension mounted in Golden Temple area again when a government planted Mafia members posing as Sikhs, fired from the Brambuta Akhara a private building, on the militants, inside the Golden Temple. According to a report, the Government is trying to make use of the services of some hardened criminals to fight out the Sikh freedom fighters. These criminals, now known as “Ribeiro’s Mafia Force”, has now been engaged to attack Golden Temple from Brahmbuta Akhara. Meanwhile, a senior official of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (I) Party said on Saturday the situation in Punjab was “alarmingly explosive”. Beant Singh, the chief of the party’s Punjab unit, said in a statement that attacks by Sikh gunmen had paralysed the state administration and he asked the government to deploy troops to control violence.

 

Article extracted from this publication >> May 6, 1988