The World - News from Aug. 22, 1989

Sikh radicals killed 10 members of a family in an attack believed sponsored by a rival farmer in a festering land dispute in northern Punjab, Indian police and witnesses said. Police reported that 10 gunmen from the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan, one of the most hard-line Sikh separatist groups, staged the assault in the village of Padri Kalan that left five women and five children dead. Authorities said the slayings were contract killings by extremists fighting to create a Sikh homeland. Police said the farmer’s rival had probably decided to have him eliminated by paying militants to perform the task.