Assassin killed

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 6

Assassin killed

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Mrs Gandhi was shot seven times as she was walking from her home to an interview with the British actor, Peter Ustinov.

Official sources said that one of the killers had been on leave over the last two months in the Punjab. He had returned to duty only two days earlier.

Both bodyguards bore the Sikh name of Singh, but , Mrs Gandhi’s press secretary, Mr H. Y. Sharada Prasad, apparently fearing a violent backlash against the Sikh community, refused to confirm that the killers were Sikhs.

“It is not for me to say if the attackers were Sikhs,” he said.

Mrs Gandhi was shot as she walked from her house — No. 1, Safdarjung Road — to a nearby bungalow where she was to give an interview with Mr Ustinov, who was filming with an Irish crew, he said. One guard, Beant Singh,hadshot her with his pistol. “Immediately afterwards the other security guard, Satwant Singh, also opened fire at her. He is reported to have emptied the contents of an automatic gun at her,” Mr Prasad said.

Other security staff overpowered the attackers. Satwant Singh died and the other man was pronounced out of danger in hospital. The shooting had happened about 9.15 a.m. (local time) Mrs Gandhi was rushed to a Government hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead at 2.30 p.m. Mr Prasad said that one of the assassins had been one of Mrs Gandhi’s bodyguards for eight years.