CHANDIGARH, India -- Suspected Sikh extremists opened fire with submachine guns at a busy Hindu market in the northern state of Punjab Saturday, killing at least eight people, authorities said.
A police official put the death toll at eight and said six were injured -- including three Sikhs, but police sources said nine people were killed and 10 wounded.
The sources said six armed Sikhs walked into the market in the village of Khuban, about 170 miles southwest of the capital of Chandigarah, and began firing at random before fleeing. The sources said all the casualties were Hindu.
Police were placed on alert throughout Punjab following Saturday's incident, and the state's chief minister, moderate Sikh Surjit Singh Barnala, prepared to travel to Khuban to inspect the situation.
The shooting was the bloodiest attack in the state since July 25 when suspected Sikh gunmen massacred 14 Hindu bus passengers near the town of Mukhstar, sparking communal violence in New Delhi that left six dead and 70 injured.
More than 500 people, most of them Hindus, have been killed in Punjab this year in a campaign by Sikh extremists for the independent nation of 'Khalistan.' Officials believe the attacks are aimed at forcing the minority community to flee the predominantly Sikh state.
Police said Saturday they also found the bodies of two Hindus killed by suspected Sikh extremists. They said the local leader of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party, Onkar Chandh, was stabbed to death in Hajipur about 120 miles north of Chandigarh.
They said the bullet-riddled body of pharmacist Madhu Sudan Joshi was found near the town of Patiala, 40 miles southwest of Chandigarh.
Intelligence sources have said they were expecting a resurgence in extremist attacks following recent allegations by Sikh radical groups that police were killing innocent Sikhs as part of the tough anti-terrorist policies of Punjab police chief J.F. Ribeiro.
Ribeiro has claimed a number of successes against the radicals since he took office in March, including the capture of the states two most-wanted extremist leaders in August.
