Further toughening of Indian security pledged by Gandhi

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 10

Further toughening of Indian security pledged by Gandhi

NZPA-AP New Delhi

The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, pledged yesterday to toughen India’s already harsh anti-terrorist laws, as authorities reported more than 2000 arrests during week-end bombings that killed 85 people. Mr Gandhi blamed the explosions on “a certain handful of Sikhs” trying to provoke conflict between Sikhs and Hindus. “We will face the extremists not with bullets but with non-violence and this will require patience,” Mr Gandhi told the Upper House of Parliament.

“We will strengthen police and the intelligence,” he said.

A bomb disguised as a camera was found at the Home Ministry and was defused.

Most commercial activity in the capital was halted by a strike called by the Opposition Janata Party to protest against the bombings, which have been blamed on terrorists of the Sikh religious sect.

The police said that 175 people had been arrested yesterday during the strike. The police fired into the air

and made several baton charges to scatter strikers trying to block roads, authorities reported. In his pledge to strengthen anti-terrorist laws and give the police more power, Mr Gandhi said: “We will fight terrorism with all our strength. We must not let terrorism be a scar in our democracy. Violence has no place in a society.” The week-end explosions in northern India, most of which were caused by booby-trap bombs placed in transistor radios, killed at least 85 people and wounded 225.

Mr Gandhi charged in his remarks to Parliament that “a foreign hand” was actively promoting Sikh terrorism.

“The fact is that foreign involvement is there. You know it, we know it. It doesn’t help ignoring it but it doesn’t help emphasising it.”

He did not identify the foreign power but his Government frequently has accused Pakistan of training and arming Sikh separatists who support either more autonomy or complete independence for Punjab state, where members of the sect

are the majority.

The Government also has demanded action against Sikh secessionists living in Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Mr Gandhi described the co-ordinated week-end bombings as “a new level of functioning by extremists... a new, more serious turn.” Federal authorities reported more than 2000 arrests in the crackdown that began with the bombings. They said that they ordered the round-up to head off an expected increase in Sikh terrorist attacks in the weeks leading up to the June 4 to 7 anniversary of the Indian Army’s assault on the Sikhs’ Golden Temple. Mr Rajiv, who assumed power after his mother, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated on October 31, did not describe the planned legislation but said it would seek to “strengthen the hands of police and ensure national security.”

Mrs Gandhi’s assassins were Sikh members of her security guard. Special laws already in force in Punjab allow security forces to arrest and search without warrant.