Killers shot later —report

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 6

Killers shot later —report

NZPA-Reuter London A London newspaper reports that Indira Gandhi’s assassins were not shot moments after they struck on Wednesday, as officially reported, but were taken to a guardhouse and shot several minutes later. “The Sunday Times,” said that the two Sikh security guards who shot Mrs Gandhi apparently had surrendered and were led to the residency guardhouse. There, according to an Intelligence source, a scuffle broke out and they were shot, the paper reported. One of the killers, named as Beant Singh, was killed and the other, Satwant Singh, was wounded and taken to hospital. The official account said that they had been shot by other guards immediately after they hit Mrs Gandhi. The paper quoted members of a film crew who were near the scene as saying that they had heard two distinct bursts of gunfire, between three and six minutes apart. A producer, Sheamus Smith, who was waiting to film an Interview of Mrs Gandhi by the actor, Peter Ustinov, said that when he reached the scene after the first shots Mrs Gandhi’s body and the assassins had disappeared. Then he had heard a second burst■