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Three killed in blast in India’s Punjab state
AMRITSAR, India, Nov 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A blast at a religious ceremony
in India’s Punjab state Sunday killed at least three people and injured 10,
police said.
Media reports said two armed men on a motorcycle forced their way into a
building where the Nirankari spiritual group was meeting.
They brandished a pistol at a woman at the gate before throwing a hand
grenade at the crowd, the Tribune newspaper said.
Police did not immediately confirm the media accounts of the attack in
Amritsar district, which came just ahead of a major Sikh festival on Friday.
“Three people have been killed and 10 people are injured. We are trying to
gather more information,” senior police officer Surinder Pal Singh Parmar
told reporters.
Nirankari followers are at odds with many Sikhs who dominate in Punjab and
consider the group heretics.
Punjab, which was divided between India and Pakistan when they split after
independence in 1947, has a history of sectarian violence.
In 1984, the Indian military launched an assault on the Golden Temple in
Amritsar aimed at flushing out militants inside who were demanding an
independent Sikh homeland.
The Sikh community was enraged by what it felt was desecration of the
revered shrine. Later that year Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by
her Sikh bodyguards.
The assassination triggered anti-Sikh riots in which some 3,000 people
were killed, many on the streets of New Delhi.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1424 hrs