NEW DELHI, India -- Three gunmen Saturday shot and killed a local leader of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party in the Sikh-dominated northern state of Punjab, India's domestic news agency said.
It was the second slaying of a local Congress Party chief in Punjab in four days.
The Press Trust of India news agency said Raj Pal Kang was killed as he sat in his shop in the town of Fatehgarh Chaurian, about 19 miles north of Amritsar.
Police said three men fired several shots at Kang, killing him and seriously injuring Mohinder Singh, a police bodyguard, before fleeing toward the nearby Pakistan border.
The Press Trust described the gunmen only as 'terrorists.' It was not known if they were Sikh extremists fighting for an independent Sikh state in Punjab.
Kang was general secretary of the local branch of the Congess Party.
Sikh terrorists were believed responsible for the slaying four days ago of Ram Labbaya, another Congress Party leader, in a town a few miles south of Amritsar.
The murder was the first major attack by suspected Sikh terrorists since state Assembly elections Sept. 25 gave a landslide victory to the moderate Sikh Akali Dal Party.
Sikh extremists had vowed to disrupt the elections that returned an elected government to Punjab after two years of central government rule, but rallied little support for a boycott of the polls.
Militant Sikhs believed the elections would only legitimize and strengthen Punjab's links to New Delhi.
Violence in Punjab in 1984 left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly Sikhs, including 600 killed in army attack June 5 at Golden Temple. The temple attack was blamed for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Oct. 31 assassination at the hands of two sikh guards.
Gandhi was succeeded by her son, Rajiv.
