The World - News from April 18, 1988

Seven Sikh separatists, who are accused of killing at least 70 people in some of the worst attacks in India’s northern Punjab state this year, were killed during a six-hour shoot-out with government troops, officials said. Three members of the paramilitary force were also killed in the gun battle near the village of Ratha Gudha, about 90 miles south of Amritsar. Police said a patrol suspected that Sikh gunmen were holed up in a farmhouse and called on them to surrender. But the Sikhs opened fire with automatic rifles and hurled hand grenades, police added. The patrol, reinforced by about 150 troops, returned the fire, pouring at least 1,200 rounds of ammunition into the house and setting it ablaze, police said.