New tension in Sikh holy city

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 8

New tension in Sikh holy city

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Extra heavily-armed police are patrolling the north Indian town of Amritsar after renewed violence in the Sikh holy city left two dead and more than 50 wounded.

The new tension appeared to cast a shadow over Government efforts to work out a compromise with Sikh leaders, who are pressing a campaign for a series of political and religious demands. including greater autonomy for the northern Punjab state, where most Sikhs live.

The Sikh leaders say that they will launch new agitation in early November if the central government does not respond adequately to their demands by then. The violence erupted when a senior police officer shot dead a Sikh protester who had tried to attack him with a type of axe, the police said.

In an apparent reprisal attack, two bombs were thrown close to a police unit outside Amritsar’s golden temple, the Sikh’s holiest shrine.

One failed to explode, but the other killed one person

and injured about 50 others, including about 20 policemen.

The Chief Minister of the Punjab, Mr Darbara Singh, held an emergency meeting with Cabinet colleagues after the bombing, but details of the talks were not disclosed.

The central government has been urging talks with the protest leaders, headed by the regional Akali Dal Partv.

In a gesture of conciliation. the Prime Minister. Mrs Indira Gandhi, last week recommended the releasee of about 25.000 protesters detained since the (northern) summer as part of the Sikh campaign. She sent the former External Affairs Minister, Swaran Singh, to negotiate with the Akali leaders, but after early meetings no new date has been set for further talks. Tension and unrest in the Punjab is one of Mrs Gandhi’s chief domestic problems. Sikh demands that boundaries of the wealthy farming state be redrawn to include the surrounding Pun-jabi-speaking areas are creating disputes with neighbouring states.