Word: sikhs
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...Gandhi risks her future in an attack on Sikh extremists...
...elegant marble-floored courtyard of the gilded Golden Temple in Amritsar was strewn with bodies and blood. The once serene and peaceful 72-acre temple complex, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, stood scarred and bruised after 36 hours of fierce fighting between militant Sikhs and Indian government troops. In sweltering heat and the dust of the battle's aftermath, black crows and vultures perched on the temple's balustrades in search of grisly carrion. For the first time in the 400-year history of the Golden Temple, the 24-hour prayer vigil had ceased...
Deep scars 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...
Responsibility for the new wave of killings was claimed by the Dashmesh Regiment, a previously unrecognized group of Sikh terrorists that counts moderate Sikhs as well as Hindus and the government among its sworn enemies. The Dashmesh, which may be connected with the fanatical Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, has vowed to murder one political figure a day until the government lifts a ban imposed late last month on a radical Sikh student organization...
...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...