Sikh Boy, 14, Slain After Truck Hits, Kills 3 Officers

A 14-year-old boy rammed a truck into paramilitary police during a riot at a Sikh temple today, killing three officers before soldiers clubbed the youth and a companion to death, police said. Security forces opened fire, killing two other people.

Witnesses, including several New Delhi police officials, said that senior police officers tried to rescue the driver of the truck and the companion who also was killed but that enraged paramilitary troopers set the vehicle on fire and blocked a fire engine trying to reach the site.

Police said seven people were killed in the temple unrest--the three officers, the 14-year-old driver and his companion and two people who were shot to death when police opened fire to quell rioting by hundreds of Sikhs brandishing swords, shields, spears, clubs and chains outside the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, New Delhi’s main Sikh temple.

It was the third outbreak of violence in New Delhi in a week, and the army was placed on full alert.

Hundreds of Sikhs had gathered outside the temple after municipal officials imposed a curfew in the old city and prohibited a traditional Sikh march to mark a holy day. The temple was surrounded by 900 police clad in riot gear and carrying rifles and automatic weapons.

At one point, about 50 Sikhs broke away and smashed windshields of cars and a bus and an army truck before being chased back to the compound by baton-swinging police.

Later, a crowd of about 600 Sikhs attacked security forces deployed around the shrine with barrages of rocks and other objects, police said. Police responded with tear gas, and the rioters retreated inside the temple.

At that point, police said, the 14-year-old Sikh boy drove a truck out of the compound with three companions and crashed into a line of about 25 Central Reserve Police Force troopers.

Three officers were crushed and two were injured. About 50 of their enraged comrades rushed to the truck, dragged the driver and his companions from the vehicle and battered them with batons and rifle butts, witnesses said. Police said the driver and another youth were killed and the two others badly injured.

“It was coldblooded murder,” one trooper said of the truck ramming. “If there is any more trouble, they (Sikhs) get bullets.”