AMRITSAR, India -- Sikh gunmen stormed a court complex in the holy city of Amritsar today to rescue three colleagues in a daring attack that left one person dead and two officers wounded, police said.
Elsewhere in northern Punjab state, police reported seven other people killed in scattered incidents of extremist violence.
Police said more than 12 militants wielding pistols and submachine guns were involved in the attack in Amritsar, 250 miles northwest of New Delhi.
They said the gunmen drove two vehicles inside the heavily guarded compound of the district court building and stationed themselves in the car park.
When an officer ushered three Sikh prisoners out of the building to an awaiting prison van, the gunmen opened fire, prompting the officer to take cover and allowing the shackled men to unchain themselves and join their colleagues, police said.
They said the militants sprayed bullets liberally around the courtyard during the three-minute operation, damaging vehicles and exchanging fire with police and security forces.
Police said the gunmen and rescued prisoners retreated to their vehicles and dispatched heavy automatic weapons fire at an adjacent police station as they left the court building, that borders a paramilitary base.
They said the attacking party escaped unscathed.
An unidentified man died in the attack and two officers were seriously wounded, the Press Trust said.
Police said extremist gunfire killed an unidentified rickshaw puller and wounded two officers.
The escapees were identified as Ranjit Singh Rana, Kanwarjit Singh, and Rajbinder Singh -- all members of the Khalistan Commando Force, a hard-line Sikh separatist group fighting to create the independent Sikh nation of Khalistan in Punjab.
The three -- who had been captured several months ago -- were in court for a hearing on various charges of extremism, along with some 100 other prisoners. More than 1,000 people have died in Punjab during the past 18 months in a bloody campaign by separatists fighting to create an independent Sikh nation in the predominantly Sikh state.
