Sikh High Priest Escapes Assassination Attempt

Three Sikhs firing .45-caliber pistols shot and wounded a high priest of the Sikh religion Wednesday as he prayed on a holy day at the Golden Temple. The gunmen killed his bodyguard.

Giani Sahib Singh, one of five Sikh high priests, was kneeling on a white marble promenade surrounding the gold-domed shrine before the arrival of thousands of worshipers.

Three young Sikhs, wearing the customary turbans, approached him and shot the 45-year-old priest twice in the arm and twice in the back, police said. The guard, Nanak Singh, died from bullets in the head and stomach.

The killers escaped by plunging into the panicked crowd, which was at the shrine to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion in the 15th Century.

The priest had been threatened with death by radical Sikhs because he did not publicly condemn the Indian army assault on the sacred temple complex in June, 1984. That assault, carried out by the predominantly Hindu army at the order of the Hindu-dominated government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, led in turn to Gandhi’s assassination in October, 1984, by Sikh militants.

It inflamed the traditional hostility between India’s majority Hindu community and the fiercely independent Sikh minority.

The spiral of violence continued, even though Gandhi’s son and successor as prime minister, Rajiv, negotiated an agreement last July for some regional autonomy with moderate Sikhs, an agreement that permitted Punjab state elections.

Militants assassinated the moderate Sikh leader, Harchand Singh Longowal, a month later. In January of this year, Kirpal Singh, the head priest of the Akal Takht, where the Sikh testament is kept, escaped with serious head and arm injuries.

A Common Name

Singh, meaning lion, is a surname adopted by all male Sikhs.

After the shooting Wednesday, police cordoned off the temple complex to hunt for the gunmen and tightened security throughout Punjab and in New Delhi.

Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala called an emergency meeting of state officials to review the situation and sent a special envoy to Amritsar.

A leader of the main, moderate Sikh party, Akali Dal, Jiwan Singh Umranangal, lamented the shooting and asked: “How can the life of an ordinary pilgrim be considered safe when the temple high priest is a target?”

At least 11 people have been killed in Punjab by suspected Sikh terrorists since Akali Dal won power in the state elections Sept. 25.

Radical Sikhs oppose the new government and reject as a sellout the peace accord with Gandhi. The United News of India quoted Sahib Singh as saying on the way to the hospital, “After Longowal, they were after me.”

The radicals have vowed to continue their campaign for greater autonomy or independence for Punjab, where most of India’s 14 million Sikhs live.