Word: barnala
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Gandhi moved decisively to quell the crisis, pressuring Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala to arrest an estimated 200 Sikh political leaders and extremist figures in predawn sweeps. Chief among them: Prakash Singh Badal, leader of a breakaway faction of the Akali Dal party, which rules Punjab state, and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the powerful head of the state committee that manages Sikh temples. Tohra, who has been accused of appeasing terrorists, was detained after he announced he would abolish the special security force that since last summer has prevented the use of the Golden Temple as a haven for terrorists...
...this time many moderate Sikhs seemed to accept the well-planned raid as a necessary move to stem the increasing violence that has racked the northern Indian state of Punjab over the past few months. Indeed, the final go-ahead was given by Punjab's chief minister, Surjit Singh Barnala, who was compelled to move against the extremists after they issued a call for Sikhs to take up arms against New Delhi and declare an independent Sikh nation, Khalistan...
...Instead, Indians suffered a convulsion of Hindu-Sikh violence that claimed at least 41 lives. The most alarming incident occurred in the northwestern state of Punjab, where at least seven people were killed and 27 injured when Sikh militants tried to assassinate the moderate Punjabi Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala during a political rally...
...Barnala, who has been criticized for being too lenient with the militants, had already indicated that he might be forced to toughen his policies toward them. "The time has perhaps come when more stern steps will be needed to tackle the problem," he said. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi urged all parties in the state to unite behind Barnala and dispatched two top aides to advise the beleaguered state leader...
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