Word: curfews
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...troubled Punjab was beginning to ebb. Three weeks after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the Indian army to Amritsar to flush Sikh terrorists out of the Golden Temple, she paid a visit to the Sikhs' holiest shrine. All foreigners and journalists were still banned from Punjab, but some curfew restrictions throughout the state were lifted. Most temples were open again for Sikh prayers, though the Golden Temple remained closed and under control of the army. Indian Airlines, the country's domestic carrier, resumed its flights to Amritsar, and buses were running again in most districts. But even...
When the government-imposed curfew was finally lifted in some parts of Punjab, Sikhs emerged profoundly shaken, yet more strongly united by a sense of alienation. In eight separate incidents, young Sikh army recruits mutinied and deserted in protest. Some raided army arsenals or attacked non-Sikh troops. By week's end, 3,097 Sikhs had been arrested as deserters and another 55 killed in shootouts with loyal army units...
...week's end the violence had not yet subsided, and the Indian army extended its 24-hour curfew in most of the northwestern state of Punjab. Several hundred Bhindranwale loyalists who had managed to escape the siege of the temple continued to wage hit-and-run attacks against troops in Amritsar. They also looted shops, set fires and killed civilians. An additional 100 Sikh extremists surfaced in Rajasthan, a state near the Pakistani border, where they called upon Sikh members of the army to rebel. Some of them did defect, while other Sikhs apparently donned army uniforms...
Sikh outrage at the assault on the temple echoed throughout India and around the world. Ignoring curfew laws, hundreds of Sikhs rioted in Punjab; they also caused havoc in a number of Indian cities. In New Delhi angry Sikhs demanded Bhindranwale's body for cremation and vowed to keep his legend alive. "If one Bhindranwale dies," Sikhs at a New Delhi demonstration shouted, "a thousand are born." Two militants brandishing swords at tacked the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Canada, leaving it a shambles. Security was increased around Indian missions in the U.S., Canada, Britain, West Germany, The Netherlands...
...Sunday the government ordered a 24-hour curfew, and told all journalists and photographers to leave Punjab. (Authorities later confiscated the film of those who had refused to comply.) Roads across the state borders and the airports were closed, trains and buses stopped running, and telephone and telegraph wires were cut. The usually thriving Punjab came to a halt, cut off from the rest of the world. About 4,000 government troops surrounded the Golden Temple and ordered out the 3,000 Sikhs who live there, as well as the crowds that enter daily for worship. Many heeded the warnings...