AMRITSAR, India -- A Sikh high priest said Monday he was beaten with iron rods and sharp weapons, then dragged from the Golden Temple and left for dead by separatists who suspected he was a police informer.
Sulakhan Singh, one of the Golden Temple's five senior priests, said separatists fighting to create an independent Sikh nation of 'Khalistan' in Punjab state tortured him in the holiest Sikh shrine for six hours Sunday.
'Militants belonging to the Khalistan Commando Force and the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan thrashed me with sharp-edged weapons and iron rods, suspecting me to be a police informer,' Singh, 38, said from his hospital bed.
'I am not an informer,' said the priest, who has served at the Golden Temple for 12 years. 'They only suspected me because security personnel posted outside the complex have very good relations with me.'
Both of Singh's arms were fractured and his hands, forehead and chest were marked with deep cuts. Doctors said Singh had been severely beaten in the abdomen, but his overall condition was stable.
He was being guarded by police.
'I am very much worried about my four children,' Singh said, tears in his eyes.
Mohammed Izhar Alam, deputy police chief of Amritsar, said the extremists beat Singh unconscious, then dragged him outside the temple and left him for dead near a community kitchen.
Singh came to at about 2 a.m., and went to a nearby police post, he said.
'Assuming him to be dead, they threw him outside the building,' Alam said. 'The butchers beat the priest with iron rods mercilessly. They drubbed him.'
Police said about 50 armed militants control the temple, making Sikh faithful wary of entering the shrine to pay obeisance. Police are reluctant, however, to send in officers for fear of upsetting Sikhs.
The army stormed the complex in June 1984 to flush out heavily armed followers of extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. About 500 Sikhs and 100 troops died in 'Operation Blue Star,' which prompted the retaliatory assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on Oct. 31, 1984 by two Sikh security men.
More than 700 people have died in separatist-related violence this year.
