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11 HINDUS KILLED IN PUNJAB UNREST

By William K. Stevens
Feb. 23, 1984

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February 23, 1984, Section A, Page 7 Buy Reprints

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Violence erupted again in the northern state of Punjab today as gunmen identified as
Sikh terrorists attacked Hindus.

Reports from the state quoted authorities there as saying that at least 11 more Hindus
were killed and 27 wounded today by Sikh militants. The deaths raised to nearly 50 the
number of people killed in clashes among Sikhs, Hindus and the police since a general
strike was held last week. Sikhs have been campaigning for political and religious
concessions from the central Government in New Delhi.

The general strike was called by Hindus to back demands for Government protection
against the increasing attacks on them in the last few months by terrorists. The militants,
who ignored the strike call, accuse the Hindus of being agents of the Hindu-dominated
central Government in discriminating against Sikhs. Most of India's 13 million Sikhs live
in Punjab; Hindus make up 48 percent of the state's population. Rule From New Delhi

Agitation for greater independence has been convulsing the state since August 1982.
Direct rule by the central Government was imposed last October after Sikh terrorists
pulled Hindus off a train and bus and killed them.

The violence has spread as well to neighboring Haryana, a predominantly Hindu state
with a Sikh minority that was split off from Punjab in 1966. Negotiations between Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi's Government and the Sikh political leadership appeared to have
foundered just as they were getting started again after a lapse of several months. The
talks resumed last week but were adjourned in the face of the new Sikh-Hindu violence.

It has been one of the worst waves of violence seen in that area since the blood bath that
followed the division of Punjab between India and Pakistan in 1947. At that time, Sikhs
and Hindus were allied against the Moslems. Cooperation With Hindus

Sikhs belong to a sect that rejects idolatry and the caste system. But they long
cooperated in Punjab in business with Hindus and freely mingled with them, sometimes
intermarrying.

The dispute in Punjab began as a political agrument over how much power the central
Government should have over the lives of Punjabis. Adding heat and emotion has been
an interplay of both religion and economics.

Punjab is India's wealthiest state, made that way by the ''green revolution'' in agriculture
that has turned the state and surrounding areas into India's principal granary. The
symbols of its prosperity are the tractor, the air- conditioner and the television antenna,
all much in evidence in the villages and towns that dot the lush, green Punjabi
wheatfields.
So prosperous have the Sikh farmers of Punjab become that many of them are seeking
ways to invest in industry. The central Government, however, discourages such
investment in the state, preferring it to got to less favored parts of the country. Sikhs see
this as discrimination against them. New Delhi's Stepchild

Set apart by their prosperity, their religion, their distinctive dress and what they perceive
as their status as New Delhi's stepchild, many Sikhs responded enthusiastically to the
agitation when it began in 1982.

The Akali Dal, a Sikh political party, is demanding greater autonomy for the state
government, a greater share of river waters that must now be divided with other states,
the transfer of Chandigarh, the capital of both Punjab and the adjacent state of Haryana,
to Punjab alone, and a number of religious concessions, including the naming of Amritsar,
the seat of the Sikh religion, a holy city.

In pursuing these demands, the Akali Dal has used Gandhian methods of civil
disobedience. But another faction of militants has turned to terrorism.