Two dead in protests in India after killing of Sikh leader (Roundup)

May 25, 2009, 11:57 GMT

   New Delhi - At least two people were killed and several injured Monday as violence triggered by the killing of a Sikh leader in Vienna hit India's northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

   Protestors set ablaze train coaches and buses and clashed with police, resulting in the declaration of curfew in key cities.

   Tensions flared in the cities on Sunday night after reports about the attack in Austria on Sant Niranjan Dass, the head of the Dera Sach Khand sect, and his deputy Sant Rama Nand.

   The sect that adheres to the Ravidass Sabha movement mostly has followers among the Dalit or low-caste Sikhs.

   Armed with swords and sticks, supporters of the sect poured into the streets in the Jalandhar city, torching vehicles to block road traffic since Sunday night.

   Angry protestors also set railway coaches on fire and attacked a convoy of the city police chief in Jalandhar, more than 150 kilometres north-west of state capital Chandigarh.

   Curfew was soon imposed and the army was deployed to control the situation in the region Monday, but the violence spread to other main cities in Punjab.

   Curfew was later declared in key cities of Ludhiana, Phagwara, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala that witnessed the backlash in which mobs set afire vehicles and damaged government buildings.

   One person was killed and four were injured as army personnel opened fire in the Lambra village near Jalandhar and another person was killed after police opened fire on protestors at the Jalandhar railway station, the PTI news agency reported quoting official sources.

   Shops and commercial establishments were closed following a general strike call by the local units of the Dera Sach Khand. At other places, hundreds of Dera supporters armed with rods ransacked shops to enforce the shutdown.

   Groups of stone-pelting men blocked a main highway linking Punjab and the neighbouring Haryana state. There were reports that demonstrators had damaged buses in Haryana's commercial city of Ambala.

   As state authorities increased security across the state, Indian Premier Manmohan Singh said he was deeply distressed over the violence and appealed for calm and restraint.

   'In areas where curfew has been imposed, it is necessary that people should go back to their homes and allow the security forces to restore law and order,' he said.

   Meanwhile, Foreign Minister SM Krishna condemned the clashes in Vienna and said he had asked Austrian authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of the 'completely mindless and wanton attack' were brought to justice.

   On Sunday, two key leaders of the sect, Niranjan Dass and Rama Nand, were among those injured in a fight between rival factions at a Sikh temple in the Austrian capital.

   Rama Nand, 57, succumbed to his injuries overnight. Niranjan Dass was in stable condition after emergency surgery.

   Two of the six attackers, who are mainstream Sikhs, were still in critical condition Monday, as they had sustained shots in the head from sect members, Austrian press agency APA reported.

   The vice president of the Vienna temple, Kumar Balvinder, said Sikhs from higher castes disliked that his fellow sect members did not follow certain rules, such as wearing beards and donning turbans.

   There are several Deras, or sects, across the northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

   Mainstream Sikhs often consider those sects as deviating from the true Sikh religion and practices.

   The differences have often resulted in violence. Clashes between Sikhs and another sect, the Dera Saccha Sauda, left several injured over the last two years.

   Sikhs constitute less than 2 per cent of India's 1.1 billion people, of which 80.5 per cent are Hindus.