Sikh Separatists Masquerade as Police to Stage India’s Biggest Bank Robbery

Sikh separatists dressed as police officers looted a bank Thursday and escaped with $4.5 million, the biggest bank heist in Indian history, officials said.

“It was a neat and clean operation,” a police spokesman said. No casualties were reported.

More than 10,000 security troops were deployed across Punjab state in a hunt for the suspects.

Bank robberies have been a major means of financing the Sikh militants’ violent campaign for a separate state they call Khalistan. Bank robberies occur almost every week in Punjab.

Police said that 12 to 15 Sikhs--most wearing police uniforms--walked into a branch of the Punjab National Bank in Ludhiana, about 60 miles northwest of Chandigarh, shortly after it opened.

Guards Duped

Mistaking them for real officers, bank employees shook hands with the robbers. Two security guards complied with requests to hand over their weapons for inspection.

The extremists, armed with rifles and submachine guns, then took keys to the safe from the manager and a cashier and locked the bank employees in a room, the spokesman said.

The Sikhs fled in a van after filling sacks with 58 million rupees--$4.5 million. Part of the money belonged to the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, which does not have a branch in the city.

Police said the robbers shouted slogans supporting Khalistan. Bank employees told the Press Trust of India news agency that the robbers said they would use the loot to buy arms.

Raid on Courtroom

In another incident in Ludhiana, police said several Sikh extremists armed with submachine guns burst into a courtroom and freed a Sikh arrested last month on terrorism charges.