Riots in India over Austria incident

NEW DELHI, May 26 (UPI) -- Protesters in Punjab state, home to a majority of India's Sikhs, rioted Monday over a Sikh temple attack in Austria, leaving at least one dead, officials said.

The rioters vandalized cars and burned unoccupied trains in the state, enraged over the Austrian incident the previous day in which one Sikh guru died, The New York Times reported.

Police officials, who imposed a curfew in four Punjab cities, said at least one person died in the rioting in the prosperous state, regarded as the bread basket of India.

In the incident in Vienna, six armed young Sikhs reportedly rushed into the hall of the temple holding two visiting sect leaders and hundreds of devotees, a spokesman at the sect's hospital in Jalandhar in Punjab was quoted as saying.

In the attack that followed at the Vienna temple, one of the leaders, Guru Sant Rama Nand, died and the other, Sant Niranjan Dass, was in stable condition after surgery, the spokesman said.

The news of the incident quickly spread to Punjab, leading to the rioting, police said.

Although the cause of the Vienna temple attack remained unclear, some local Indian reports suggested it might have resulted from caste rivalries, even though Sikhism religion forbids caste and seeks equality.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, appealed for calm, the Times reported.

"Sikhism preaches tolerance and harmony," he said in a statement. 'I appeal to all sections of the people in Punjab to abjure violence and maintain peace."