ssm@cmu-ri-leg.ARPA (Sesh Murthy) (03/28/85)
Two political leaders, one Hindu and one Sikh, where shot to death Sunday
night in separate attacks in the capital of Punjab state, police said.
Authorities said two men assassinated Krishan Lal Manchanda as he
watched television at his home in Chandigarh. He was general
secretary of the Chandigarh branch of the rightist Bharatiya Janata
(Indian People's) Party.
Minutes later, assailants gunned down Makhan Singh, a student leader
of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress party in the city, about
130 miles north of New Delhi.
Police said the killings apparently were unrelated. But the attacks
broke a months-long lull in the terrorist violence that has claimed
hundreds of lives in Punjab since 1980 and led to the army assault
last June on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest Sikh shrine.
Authorities said two youths knocked on the door of Manchanda's home
and told his wife they wanted to borrow some books.Manchanda got up
from where he was watching a movie on television, and the youths
sprayed him with gunfire, killing him on the spot and wounding his
11-year-old son.
The assailants escaped on a motorscooter.
Less than 30 minutes later, Singh was shot dead, apparently by
members of a rival student group, police said. They gave no further
details.
Chandigarh authorities ordered all schools and universities in the
city closed on Monday, banned groups of more than five people from
gathering in public, and forbid motorcycle riders to carrying
passengers.
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