One of Sikhs’ Head Priests Shot in Ambush

Three motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and wounded one of the five high priests of India’s minority Sikh religion today in troubled Punjab state, state authorities reported.

Authorities identified the escaped gunmen as Sikhs.

Kirpal Singh, the wounded priest, was in stable condition after emergency surgery at Christian Medical College Hospital in Ludhiana city, the United News of India reported. Two of the priest’s aides, also wounded in the attack, were listed as out of danger at the same hospital.

A Punjab government spokesman said the three gunmen followed Singh’s car on a highway and opened fire when the vehicle stopped briefly. He was on his way to Mandiani village, 155 miles northwest of New Delhi, to attend a funeral ceremony, United News of India said.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sent a key aide, Arun Singh, to Ludhiana after learning of the attack. Punjab Chief Secretary S. S. Dhanoa and Home Secretary N. N. Vohra also went to the scene.

Officials speculated that the attack may have been staged by a youth group opposed to Kirpal Singh or by extremists wanting to sabotage the new government’s move to resolve the lingering Punjab crisis.

It was the first terrorist attack in three months in Punjab, where about 750 people have been slain in hit-and-run attacks since 1980.

Singh, the head priest of the Akal Takht, seat of the highest authority in Sikhism, is widely regarded as a hard-liner. He bitterly denounced the June army assault on the Golden Temple, saying India’s 13 million Sikhs will never “forget that sacrilege.”

India’s population of 730 million is predominately Hindu.