Three die in running Delhi street battle

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 8

Three die in running Delhi street battle

NZPA New Delhi ! Militant Sikhs armed with swords, rocks, and torches I battled the police through the streets of New Delhi at . the week-end in rioting that left three people dead and ’more than 100 injured, !authorities have reported, i A 16-hour curfew was irn- ; posed on parts of the capital after the police dispersed! !the mobs with rifle shots! and tear gas. The police said .that 317 people had been ar-} ‘ rested. The police fired to save; . constables from being butchjered with swords, CommisI sioner J. N. Chaturvedi told 'reporters. He said that among the injured were 50 police officers, including Mrs Kiran Bedi, a deputy police commissioner, who was! struck in the head by a I sword-wielding Sikh.

il The violence stemmed; from a continuing feud bei tween orthodox Hindu Sikhs . and the Nirnakaris, a break- 1 ’(away group that the Sikhs; Isay are renegades and bias-; iphemous. , Rioters set fire to a post! office and a score of city ’ buses, police vans, and other vehicles. Authorities identified the } dead as the driver of a I‘police jeep who was struck ’ I by stones, a teenager who *} suffered gunshot wounds, land a Sikh leader, Avtar! I Singh Kohli. Officers said that Kohli! • died of a heart attack after; ■ he was arrested and fell un-| I conscious when a tear-} : gas shell exploded in the I police van taking him to a ; police station. ' On“ hospital reported that ; 110 persons had been admitilted with bullet wounds. The police said most of their

11 shots were fired into the air. Sikhs, especially extremist 5 members of a group known ' as the Akalis, have been ’ protesting against a Govern- ■ ment decision to allow the 'Nirankaris to hold their anjnual assembly on the lawns j near India Gate, the British- ’ built memorial arch. The assembly began as scheduled on Saturday, with 1 those attending protected by a corrugated-iron fence and 1 hundreds of armed police. I Violence erupted on Sunday morning when bands of chanting Akalis attacked a ■ group of the police near a . Sikh temple. In September, 14 people, were killed when Akalis invaded a Nirankaris meeting! at Kanpur in northern India.. Clashes between Sikhs and Nikarankaris at the Sikhl ■ holy city of Amritsar! claimed 19 lives last April. I