CHANDIGARH, India -- Sikh separatists robbed a bank in northern Punjab state today, killing three employees and bringing to 21 the number of people killed in extremist attacks across the state, police said.
Police said four Sikhs with handguns and semi-automatic weapons arrived in a car at a branch of the State Bank of India at Talwara, 80 miles north of the state capital of Chandigarh.
The four entered the building and forced employees to hand over $175,000. The bank held a large amount of cash to pay the staff bonuses on the eve of the Hindu festival of Diwali, police said.
The gunmen fired at random, killing the manager, a security man and a volunteer guard, and wounded one other person, police said.
As the four gunmen tried to leave in their car, an unarmed policeman overpowered one of the robbers, officials said.
Police launched a manhunt and the Press Trust of India reported that the captured Sikh was already wanted for bank robbery and for killing a high school teacher.
In New Delhi, police detained more than 1,000 members of a right-wing political party calling for greater government action against Sikh separatists following the latest killings in Punjab.
Some 400 police officers in full riot gear stood by as the crowd gathered outside the Bharatiya Janata Party office in central New Delhi to hear an address by Madan Lal Khurana, a leader of the party.
He said the government failed in its fight against Sikh extremists who demand the creation of the independent nation of 'Khalistan' in Punjab.
He called for military rule in the northern state and the resignations of Home Minister Buta Singh and Punjab Chief Minister S.S. Barnala.
Following the 20-minute speech, police moved in to prevent the group from marching to Singh's residence and arrested the demonstrators for defying an emergency law banning public gatherings in the capital.
The protestors chanted slogans and waved the green and orange colors of their party as they were herded aboard 25 buses and taken away.
Police said the 1,000 demonstrators would be released later and no charges would be pressed.
New separatist attacks in Punjab began Saturday when Sikh radicals shot nine Hindus and wounded nine in Khuban village, in south Punjab.
Tuesday, seven people were slain across the state, four of them at a Hindu prayer meeting.Two people also were shot Wednesday in a marketplace in Banga town, 45 miles west of Chandigarh.
More than 500 people, most of them Hindus, have been killed this year in Punjab in Sikh separatist attacks that officials say are aimed at terrifying minority officials into fleeing the state.
