The World : Sikhs Slay Police Official

Sikh militants shot and killed a police inspector in Punjab state, the United News of India reported. The three gunmen fired at close range on Inspector Gurbachan Singh as he was standing outside his office in Bhatinda, 190 miles northwest of New Delhi, the news agency said. Elsewhere in Punjab, Hindu mobs attacked Sikhs and set fire to their shops in the village of Dhariwal, 40 miles northeast of Amritsar, in retaliation for the slaying of two Hindus on Monday. Officials said that hundreds of troops were rushed in and that a 24-hour curfew was imposed in the first major violence in northern India since the murder of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi last October.