Indian police mentioned on Monday they’d killed three Sikh separatists preventing for a separate homeland often called “Khalistan”, the battle for which sparked lethal violence within the Eighties and Nineties.
The marketing campaign for Khalistan was on the coronary heart of a diplomatic firestorm final yr after Indian intelligence operatives had been linked to the killing of a vocal Sikh chief in Canada and an tried assassination in the USA — claims New Delhi rejected.
Within the newest incident, the Khalistani rebels had been killed after a gun battle in Pilibhit district within the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The boys had been needed for his or her alleged involvement in a grenade assault on a police outpost in Punjab state this month.
Pilibhit police superintendent Avinash Pandey mentioned officers had surrounded the boys after a tip-off, with the suspects launching “heavy fireplace”.
“Within the retaliatory motion, all three had been critically injured and later died in hospital,” he mentioned.
Police recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and a big cache of ammunition.
The three males belonged to Khalistan Zindabad Power, a separatist group, Punjab police chief Gaurav Yadav mentioned in an announcement.
The Khalistan marketing campaign dates again to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a major minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter subject between India and several other Western nations with massive Sikh populations.
New Delhi calls for stricter motion in opposition to the Khalistan motion, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of “terrorism”.