NEW DELHI, India -- A Sikh assassin and her accomplice shot and killed a rival Sikh terrorist Saturday as he sipped tea at an eatery in the holy city of Amritsar, officials said.
Authorities in Punjab state feared the killing, which apparently was done for revenge, might spark a battle between rival Sikh militants feuding about methods of winning increased political autonomy and religious recognition from the federal government.
In violence Friday in Punjab, three people were killed, including a suspected Sikh terrorist shot by police in the city of Patiala and a Sikh reformer slain by Sikh militants.
The latest deaths boosted to 139 the number of people killed in eight weeks of Sikh terrorist acts, police shootings and Sikh-Hindu clashes in northern India.
Surinder Singh Sodhi, described by police as a well-known Sikh terrorist, was having tea in a tea shop in Amritsar, 250 miles northwest of New Delhi, when a couple walked in and started talking with him.
The woman and man suddenly pulled out guns and opened fire on Singh, hitting him seven times and wounding four others in the shop.
The man and woman fled into the nearby Golden Temple, the Sikh's holiest shrine, which has become an armed camp for rival Sikh groups in recent months.
The government has repeatedly said no uniformed police or troops will enter the 25-acre complex, fearing an intrusion would spark an uprising in India's 12 million Sikhs.
The woman shouted 'I have taken revenge' as she ran into the complex, Press Trust of India domestic news agency said. She was taken to militant Sikh religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, blamed by many Indian politicians for the recent wave of terrorist killings.
The religious leader took no action against the woman for killing Singh, reported to be one of his followers, witnesses told the news agency.
Police sources said Singh was suspected in a number of murders - mostly of police officers -- in the past two years and was wanted for questioning in the April 2 killing of Harbans Lal Khanna, a Hindu opposition party leader and former legislator shot and killed at his drug store in Amritsar.
Khanna's body guard and a customer were also slain in that attack. The politician was believed slain because he supported a moderate stand on Sikh demands.
In Patiala, a district 130 miles north of New Delhi, police shot and killed a Sikh who allegedly attacked them with an ax. The victim was not immediately identified.
In the city of Ferozepore in western Punjab, Sikh terrorists shot and killed Gurdial Singh, a reformist Sikh, near a railway station. Militant Sikhs have mounted a campaign of violence against the reformists, called Nirankaris, for breaking away from the orthodox faith.
In a third incident, gunmen shot and killed a resident of Burj village near Amritsar.
