NEW DELHI, India -- Sikh extremists staged coordinated attacks in the capital today, killing two members of a right-wing Hindu political party and opening fire on pedestrians, police and witnesses said.
The attacks -- the first in New Delhi since June 14 when gunmen killed 14 people -- prompted a Cabinet meeting in which police were ordered on full alert and the army placed on standby to possibly assist in security enforcement.
The Press Trust of India quoted sources as saying 'maximum alert' had been sounded following reports that Sikh extremists were in New Delhi and planned several attacks in the capital before Independence Day on Aug. 15.
Police said the latest slayings prompted a protest by angryactivists of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a right-wing Hindu political party. Demonstrators deflated tires, smashed windows of some 50 buses and damaged several cars.
Police cordoned off the area, stopped all vehicles from entering and stationed troops to protect a nearby Sikh temple. Shops closed in protest but officers said they were in control of the situation.
One source told the Press Trust that four militants had arrived from Pakistan, seven from Canada and three from Britain after receiving training in the use of sophisticated weapons. They are mostly clean-shaven to disguise their Sikh religion, which requires male followers to grow beards and wear a turban, the source said.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
Early today, two gunmen attacked Hans Raj Sethi, a Bharatiya Janata Party representative on the New Delhi City Council, who lived in the Kalkaji district of south Delhi, about 500 yards from a police station, police said.
They said the attackers, armed with a pistol and a submachine gun, shot Sethi, 65, at 5:40 a.m. as he slept on his balcony and left behind pamphlets advocating the independent Sikh nation of Khalistan in the northern state of Punjab.
'At least six shots were fired and Hans Raj was killed instantly,' said Khairati Lal, who saw the attack from his shop adjacent to the house. 'They fired at me also but I ducked under my staircase.'
Lal said the gunmen appeared to be in their early 20s. He said one was clean-shaven and the other wore a beard and a turban.
The two attackers then drove their motorscooter to a nearby milk depot, where about 70 people were waiting to be served.
'One fired the submachine gun but only two bullets came out that went over our heads. Then the weapon jammed,' said Raj Varma, who was in line. 'They shouted slogans in favor of Khalistan and then drove away shouting, 'You were lucky.''
'People scattered in panic,' Varma said. 'No one tried to confront them.'
Police said two gunmen struck in the same neighborhood at about 6 a.m at the house of Sudarshan Munjal, 53, a BJP member whose brother represents the right-wing party on the city council.
They said Munjal was cleaning his car when the assailants walked up his driveway and one opened fire with a pistol. The bullet missed and Munjal wrestled with the gunman, but was thrown into a drain, where the second Sikh shot him, police said.
Both victims had endorsed their party's demand for strong action against the extremists, such as military rule in Punjab. Sikh militants have attacked BJP members in the northern state.
The pair escaped on a motorcycle, although police said they had recovered the getaway vehicles involved in the shootings. They said they also were investigating claims of responsiblity by the 'Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan,' which also claimed the June 14 attacks in New Delhi.
The group's namesake was a zealot who led the militant occupation of the Golden Temple of Amritsar but died during a June 1984 army assault on the holiest Sikh shrine.
