Sikhs kill Gandhi man

Press, 10 September 1985, Page 6

Sikhs kill Gandhi man

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Sikh extremists shot dead a youth leader of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s party yesterday and the police gave details of a plot to blow up a Punjab express train.

In Government moves to counter extremist attempts to disrupt September 25 polls in Punjab state, authorities amended election laws to allow voting to go ahead in a constituency if an independent candidate died before the poll. Intelligence officials regard independents as more vulnerable than party candidates and election officials say voting should still be cancelled if party candidates die. Two extremists killed Subash Chander Shingari near the central Punjab town of Jalandhar yesterday in the first killing since official campaigning started two

days ago. Mr Shingari, Jalandhar secretary of the youth wing of of Mr Gandhi’s governing Congress (I) Party, was riding his motor-cycle in open country near Jalandhar when two Sikhs, also on a motor-cycle, overtook him and opened fire with revolvers, the police said. They gave details of an extremist plan to blow up the Pride of Punjab express train running between New Delhi and the Sikh holy city, Amritsar, in Punjab.

The police said that they had arrested a New Delhi University lecturer, Harmeet Singh, who had offered to finance the plan which was uncovered after interrogation of six Sikhs arrested after the murder last week of Arjun Dass, a prominent Gandhi supporter. Mr Dass was linked by civil rights reports to anti-Sikh riots last Novem-

ber after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Jagdish Singh, one of the six suspects, committed suicide by taking poison shortly after his arrest. The decision to amend electoral law was taken in the wake of intelligence reports that terrorists were planning to eliminate at least one candidate in each constituency to jeopardise the election process in Punjab, the Press Trust of India reports. Under old election laws a fresh election date must be set in a constituency if any candidate dies once official campaigning starts. Election officials justified cancelling polls if a party candidate died, because electors had the right to vote for a party which was not the case with independents.

Militant Sikhs have called for a boycott of the poll.