Sikh Separatists Kill 19 Students at India College

Armed Sikh separatists stormed one of the country’s most prestigious engineering colleges before dawn Friday, killing 19 students asleep in a dormitory, police said.

The militants, armed with Chinese-made AK-47 rifles, entered Thapar Engineering College and knocked on the door of the dormitory, said a police spokesman. When one of the students opened the door, the gunmen opened fire, he said.

Police said the gunmen were believed to be Sikh extremists fighting for an independent homeland in Punjab, a rich farming state on the northern border with Pakistan.

At least 16 people died instantly and three died later of their injuries. Five other students remained hospitalized, doctors said.

The victims were from colleges in neighboring states who had come to attend the school’s annual youth festival, said the police spokesman, who cannot be identified under briefing rules.

The attack occurred at 2:30 a.m., hours before Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi arrived in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, for a brief visit. Gandhi made no public statement on attack.

Patiala, in southern Punjab, is about 45 miles southwest of Chandigarh.

The Thapar College, one of the best known institutions in northern India, has about 1,500 students. About 200 others had come for the youth festival.

Sikh extremists have killed at least 1,544 people this year in their bid to carve out a separate homeland they want to call Khalistan, or “Land of the Pure.”

The radicals allege Sikhs are socially and culturally discriminated against by the Hindu majority and the Hindu-dominated government.

Sikhs make up 2% of India’s 880 million people but are a slight majority in Punjab. Hindus comprise 82% of the population.

In Fazibad in northeastern India, police arrested 1,000 Muslim protesters who tried to march to nearby Ayodhya, where celebrating Hindus laid the foundation stone of a new temple at a site claimed by both religions.

Babri Masjid, the Mosque of Babar, was built in the 17th Century on the spot in Ayodhya where Hindu fundamentalists claim one of their most popular gods, Lord Ram, was born.

About 90 minutes after the arrests in Faizabad, Hindus celebrated the laying of the foundation stone of a new Ram temple 130 feet from the Babar Mosque.