CHANDIGARH, India -- A powerful bomb set by suspected Sikh extremists exploded Wednesday in the heavily guarded office of a controversial paramilitary police commander, killing him and three subordinates and wounding at least four other people, police said.
Police said the blast occurred at 12:12 p.m. at the headquarters compound of the 75th battalion of the Punjab Armed Police in Jullunder, about 80 miles northwest of the state capital of Chandigarh.
The bomb was planted in the office of the battalion commandant, Senior Superintendant of Police Govind Ram, a Hindu officer with a reputation for ruthlessness whose son was slain by a Sikh extremist gunman on Sept. 13.
Police said the explosion killed Ram, a sub-inspector, a head constable and a constable and seriously wounded at least four other people in the building.
The wounded were all admitted to hospital for treatment.
The powerful blast demolished a large portion of the four-room, single-story building in which Ram's office was located, police said.
'We doubt the involvement of an inner person in the blast,' said a senior police officer. 'We are not clear whether it was a time device or remote control. It was probably kept in (Ram's) dustbin.'
Police blamed the explosion on Sikh extremists fighting since 1983 to create in the predominantly Sikh state of Punjab the independent theocratic nation of Khalistan, or Land of the Pure, to escape alleged discrimination by the Hindu-dominated central government.
More than 5,000 people have died in violence related to the insurrection.
Ironically, the bombing occurred in the same supposedly high security compound in which Sikh gunmen opened fire at the state's former police chief, Julio Ribiero, and his wife in early 1987. Both escaped serious injury.
Police said Ram had long been on the extremists' 'hit list' because of his alleged role in the deaths of suspected radicals in gun battles and in so-called 'fake encounters' in which security forces allegedly summarily execute detainees.
Last September, when Ram was chief of police in the Punjab town of Batala, he became one of the extremists' chief targets for ordering the detentions of the wives of two prominent underground militants. The women were allegedly beaten and tortured while in Ram's custody.
The episode sparked a major outcry, prompting the government of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to order his transfer Sept. 10 to the Punjab Armed Police, a state paramilitary police force. Three days later, a radical killed Ram's son as he was returning home from college.
Ram is the latest victim in a recent spate of radical revenge attacks against officials and security personnel closely associated with Gandhi's policy of trying to contain the insurrection with massive force and repression. Frequent charges have been aired that security officers abused their powers.
About two dozen people have died in the attacks, which began after Gandhi failed to retain power in late November polls.
Gandhi's Punjab policy fueled hatred and resentment of New Delhi by Punjab's Sikhs, most of whom oppose the demand for Khalistan.
Gandhi's predecessor, Prime Minister V.P. Singh, has been trying to woo back the moderate Sikh majority with pledges to redress grievances and efforts to formulate a political solution to the problem.
The bombing came on the eve of a rally planned for the Punjab town of Ludhiana and organized by Singh's ruling National Front coalition and a number of other major political parties as part of the effort to end bloodshed in the state.
