ssm@cmu-ri-leg.ARPA (Sesh Murthy) (03/28/85)
Intelligence reports indicate Sikh extremists living abroad may have hired
the international terrorist ''Carlos'' to kill Indian leaders, and a
nationwide alert has been issued to prevent him from entering the country,
an official source said Tuesday.
The alert says Carlos Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, a Venezuelan sometimes
called ''The Jackal,'' can pass as an Indian and may try to enter the
country on a false passport, since there are no accurate descriptions
of him, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said some overseas Sikh businessmen are suspected of having given
Carlos ''a lot of money to carry out assassinations in India and
train Sikh extremists.''
When asked about the reports, spokesman M.S. Krishna Rao of the Home
Ministry said only that the government was aware of them and ''all
necessary followup steps have been taken.''
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government has accused Sikh exiles of
instigating and financing terrorism in Punjab, where most of India's
13 million Sikhs live. The state now is under military control.
Gandhi told Parliament recently that 26 Sikh extremist groups were
operating in Western Europe and North America.
Some Sikh rebels abroad have threatened to kill Gandhi, 40, in
reprisal for the slaying of more than 2,000 Sikhs in widespread riots
sparked by the Oct. 31 assassination of Indira Gandhi, his mother and
predecessor as prime minister.
Two Sikh members of her personal guard killed Mrs. Gandhi to avenge
the bloody army assault last June on the Golden Temple of Amritsar,
most sacred shrine of the Sikh religion, which the government had
called a haven for terrorists.
Carlos, son of a wealthy communist lawyer, has been linked with
several major terrorist actions, including bombings Dec. 31 in
Marseilles, France, that killed five people and wounded 41; the 1975
hijacking of an Air France jetliner to Uganda that ended with the
Israeli commando raid on the Entebbe airport, and the kidnapping of
11 OPEC oil ministers in Vienna that same year.
--
uucp: seismo!rochester!cmu-ri-leg!ssm
arpa: ssm@cmu-ri-leg