Word: punjab
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...remain. More than 3,000 people died last year when a wave of killing surged over the northeastern state of Assam. Last week Sikh gunmen killed 35 people, many of them Hindus, in separate incidents, bringing to more than 200 the number of victims in the northwestern state of Punjab over the past four months. Government officials are concerned because such violence is on the rise. Said a senior civil servant in New Delhi last week: "Communal clashes are almost becoming a form of alternate government in our country, and what makes it worse is that they strike...
...which they complained fails to recognize their special place in the nation. Then the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced it would consider amending Article 25, and the constitution burning was called off. But just when the situation seemed to be cooling, the violence that has plagued the Punjab for 18 months exploded ferociously. Early last week Sikh extremists lobbed hand grenades into a religious house near their holy city of Amritsar, killing four and injuring 31. In many Punjab towns terrorists on motorcycles shot up cars, banks and people in the streets. Two Hindu political leaders, both national...
...Indian Cabinet, in an emergency session last week, declared the Punjab "dangerously I disturbed" and increased the arrest and detentions powers of security forces-in that area. Still, opposition leaders in the Parliament regard these measures as insufficient. Most oppose Mrs. Gandhi's efforts to meet Sikh demands, and some even suggest that she storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where Bhindranwale Bhindranwale is ensconced, which would undoubtedly provoke an even more furious Sikh uprising...
...they had enjoyed preferential treatment in the armed forces and civil services, and were given special representation in elected bodies. With independence, those privileges were lost, and the Sikhs became politically subservient to the Hindu majority. Soon they began agitating for their own state. In 1966 they were given Punjab by the federal government. Although that state has India's richest, most fertile land, the Sikhs still felt their portion was too small compared with that of neighboring Haryana, the state created at the same time for the Hindus. Therefore, the Akali Dal Party, the political...
...Their heads shaved to the scalp, faces no longer covered with luxuriant beards, Sikhs lay in the street, blasphemed, humiliated and scorned. Last week, in an atmosphere of anarchy, Gandhi's government imposed harsh measures of its own. In clashes between police and terrorists in New Delhi, the Punjab and Haryana, at least eight people were killed and 36 wounded. After five moderate Sikhs were assassinated by radical members of the sect, the government ordered the arrest of 1,225 young Sikh fanatics across the country who were suspected of sabotage and planning insurrection. To quell further uprisings...