India’s Sikhs Urge Death for Gandhi : Announce Plans to Protect Temple With Armed Guards

Sikh militants called for the deaths of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and top officials of troubled Punjab state today and announced that they are recruiting their own armed force to guard the sanctity of the Golden Temple.

The moves came at a rally by about 3,500 Sikhs to mark the anniversary of the army’s 1984 assault on the holy shrine in which about 1,000 Sikhs were killed.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv’s mother, ordered the army raid to drive out terrorists and was killed in revenge by two of her Sikh bodyguards five months later.

Second Meeting

Today’s was the second such meeting this week. The first, on Wednesday, ended with about 200 radicals rampaging around the temple. One volunteer guard was killed and seven other people were wounded.

As at the earlier rally, several Sikh fugitives sat on the podium today, and Amritsar District Police Chief S. S. Virk said police were investigating how the wanted men again slipped into the sprawling temple complex.

Virk said charges will be brought against rally leaders because of threatening speeches and resolutions.

One resolution said that Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, Police Chief Julius Ribeiro and India’s national government were to blame for the deaths of innocent Sikhs.

‘The Same Lesson’

It pledged “they will be taught the same lesson” as others who have challenged the Sikhs, citing historical enemies slain by Sikh warriors.

The resolutions were accepted by shouting and a show of hands.

“This is a clear call for the liquidation of Barnala and Ribeiro. Our target also is Rajiv Gandhi,” said Satwinder Singh Bhola, a speaker at the rally.

Bhola announced the plan for a corps of 600 Sikhs armed with swords, spears and knives to guard the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

He said the present 400 volunteer Sikh guards, most of them former soldiers, will be accepted as long as they were baptized Sikhs--those who have taken vows to follow the precepts of the warrior sect.

Bhola said the guards will block police from entering the temple and also keep out “extremists.”