Sikh Leader Who Signed Accord With Gandhi Killed

Gunmen today shot and killed the moderate Sikh political leader who recently signed a peace accord with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to settle the Punjab crisis, All-India Radio and domestic news agencies reported.

The shooting of Harchand Singh Longowal occurred hours after terrorists killed a Hindu leader of Gandhi’s governing Congress Party and wounded two other party officials in Punjab’s Jullundur city.

In a brief release, the news agencies United News of India, Press Trust of India and the state-run All-India Radio, reported that Longowal died in the hospital.

A wave of terrorist attacks followed Gandhi’s call last weekend for elections in the troubled Punjab, home of the 13-million-member Sikh religious minority.

The 57-year-old Longowal, called “sant” or saint, was shot by four assailants while addressing supporters at a village temple in his home district of Sangrur, 140 miles northwest of New Delhi.

The slain Congress politician was identified as 62-year-old Dev Dutt Khullar, whose son was assassinated just before the June, 1984, Indian army assault on the Golden Temple. He was declared dead at the hospital.

Party President Wounded

Jullundur Congress Party president, Gurdial Saini, who appeared to be the main target of the terrorist attack, was seriously wounded, Jullundur Police Chief S. S. Virk said.

A party worker, Gurbachan Singh, a Sikh, was wounded in the leg in the hail of bullets fired by the attackers, police said.

Virk said the four gunmen involved in the attack escaped in a car. Police have launched a statewide hunt for the four, he said.

Gandhi recently signed a peace accord with Longowal that was hailed as a solution to the long campaign by the Sikhs for a measure of autonomy in Punjab. Sikh extremists rejected the accord.

Sikh critics object to the peace accord because Gandhi rejected two important demands: an amnesty for nearly 5,000 Sikh army mutineers and release of thousands of imprisoned youths.