200,000 Attend Rites for Assassinated Sikh Leader

LONGOWAL, India — More than 200,000 mourners attended the cremation today of an assassinated Sikh political leader as fears mounted that Sikh extremists were planning a new wave of terror in their campaign for an independent Punjab state.

Sikh political leaders and opposition parties called on Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to postpone elections set for Sept. 22 in volatile northern Punjab, the only state in India where Sikhs are a majority.

In New Delhi, the federal Election Commission announced that it is reconsidering its decision to hold the elections in Punjab, where Sikh militants have waged a bloody campaign for an independent state.

Despite fears of a resurgence of Sikh violence, more than 200,000 mourners--many wearing saffron-colored turbans--turned out for the cremation of Sikh political leader Harchand Singh Longowal, who was shot to death near a shrine in the city of Sangrur on Tuesday. (Story, Page 10.)

Hours before Longowal’s death, a Hindu politician of Gandhi’s Congress-I party was slain in Punjab and two other party members were wounded.

The Indian government, fearing further Sikh violence, placed the army on alert in Punjab, and 24-hour curfews were clamped on parts of the state.

Mourners today staged a five-hour funeral procession through Longowal village, 130 miles northwest of New Delhi, to the cremation site in a rain-soaked open field. The mourners threw flowers on the 53-year-old Sikh leader’s body as it was carried on a garland-wreathed vehicle to the cremation site.

Many more mourners were kept away by 10,000 state police and military troops armed with machine guns, rifles and clubs.

As Longowal was cremated, violence continued. In the Jalandhar district of Punjab, two Sikh extremists riding a motorcycle shot and wounded an official doing flood relief work, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

In New Delhi, slogan-shouting students from a Sikh school damaged eight city buses to protest Longowal’s killing, the Press Trust said.