AMRITSAR, India -- Seven people were killed by Sikh militants who rampaged through a village in northern Punjab state, police said Saturday.
In another attack, militants assassinated a local leader of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's ruling Congress (I) party, police said.
The deadly attacks came Friday night, hours after Parliament legislation extending for six months a provision giving New Delhi direct control over violence-riddled Punjab state.
New Delhi imposed 'President's Rule' last May, sacking the state's elected Sikh administration for failing to curb the bloody independence campaign by Sikh militants.
Police said four to six militants armed with submachine guns stormed through Sidwan Dona village, 35 miles southeast of Amritsar, and indiscriminately killed seven people.
Most of the dead were Hindus, police said.
The assailants first attacked a grocery shop in the village, killing the shopkeeper and a customer, police said.
The gunmen then proceeded to a private home, killing a man identified only as Shankar, and injuring two others in a hail of fire. They prowled further into the village, killing three others, before returning to Shankar's home to kill the man's father. The extremists then fled the village, police said.
In the other incident, Sudhir Sharma -- Ropar district president of the youth wing of Gandhi's ruling party -- was killed by militants who fired at him from point-blank range, police said.
About 890 people have died this year in violence related to the terrorist campaign by Sikh militants to establish a theocratic state of 'Khalistan' in Punjab, where Sikhs are in slight majority over Hindus. About 1,250 people were killed last year.
