Word: sikhs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...terrorist strikes raised the possibility of another sectarian bloodletting between Sikhs and Hindus, the largest of India's religious groups. An estimated 2,000 Sikhs were killed in massacres following Indira Gandhi's murder. As Sikhs in New Delhi and elsewhere huddled in their homes, fearful of another murderous backlash, security forces sealed highways into and out of the city and subjected plane, train and bus passengers to careful searches. Police swept through ten Sikh temples in New Delhi, hunting for suspects. Some 200 Sikhs were detained in New Delhi; 600 more were arrested in sweeps in Haryana and Punjab...
...terrorists' new campaign was a defiant challenge to Gandhi's efforts to find a peaceful solution to Sikh grievances, and shattered hopes for early negotiations. Since he took office after his mother's assassination, Gandhi, 40, has given top priority to dealing with the Sikh crisis. For the past three years, that struggle has focused on Punjab, a northwestern state in which the Sikhs, a relatively prosperous 2% minority in greater India, have a slight majority. Tensions came to a head last June after armed Sikh radicals, many of them demanding an independent state to be called Khalistan, barricaded themselves...
...terrorists were "foreign trained." Most of the explosive devices used in the attacks were hidden in transistor radios casually left in public places. Unsuspecting passersby picked them up and turned them on--and then the bombs exploded. Eyewitnesses said that shortly before the blasts in the terminal, a Sikh had boarded the bus, left a radio on a seat and got off just before departure time; similar accounts were given in connection with other incidents. One man unwittingly carried such a bomb 150 miles, from Chandigarh to his home in New Delhi, where it exploded, killing him and another person...
Even if authorities manage to stave off a backlash, the terrorist strikes were a severe setback for the youthful Prime Minister. Since he led his Congress (I) Party to an overwhelming victory in last December's parliamentary elections, Gandhi has made significant concessions in an attempt to bring Sikh political leaders to the negotiating table. He released Sikh leaders who had been held in detention since the army assault on the Golden Temple, ordered an independent inquiry into the massacres that followed his mother's death, and lifted a ban on the All-India Sikh Students' Federation, the most radical...
That power struggle took a bizarre turn two weeks ago. Joginder Singh, 83, the father of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the firebrand who had led the revolt for an independent Sikh state before he died in the army attack on the Golden Temple, suddenly announced the formation of a nine-member ad hoc committee to run Sikh affairs. Joginder Singh's selection of a number of extremists as members of the new group indicated that the action was an attempt to supersede more moderate leadership of the movement...