AMRITSAR, India -- Sikh extremists shot and killed six people in Punjab state Monday, most of them fellow Sikhs and three from the same family, police said.
Five Sikhs with handguns burst into the home of Mohinder Kaur at about 3 a.m. in the town of Tarn Taran, 20 miles south of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, and opened fire at close range, police said.
They killed Kaur, a 45-year-old school teacher they said qas an informer, her two daughters, aged 18 and 16, and a woman tenant, police said. They said all four women were Sikhs.
They said the killers doused the bodies in kerosene and set them aflame.
Police said a note found at the scene claimed responsibility for the killings in the name of the Khalistan Commando Force, an extremist group named for the independent nation of 'Khalistan' the Sikh separatists want to create in Punjab. Police said the note accused Kaur of being a police informer.
In two other incidents Monday, police said Sikh gunmen killed a Sikh police constable near the city of Kapurthala, about 40 miles southeast of Amritsar, and a Hindu school teacher on his way to work near the town of Moga, about 60 miles south of Amritsar.
The slayings were the latest attacks against people suspected of providing authorities with information on the activities of Sikh extremist groups. Last Thursday, Sikh gunmen killed 10 people in two attacks in Punjab.
More than 600 people died last year in Punjab in Sikh extremist violence. Most of the victims were Hindus and many were believed by the separatists to be police informers. State police concede their intelligence-gathering capabilities have been harmed by the slayings.
