AMRITSAR, India -- Sihk extremist wearing police uniforms and traveling in a jeep opened fire on a crowded market in Talwandi Bhai village Wednesday, killing 10 people and wounding 14 others in the second such attack in less than a week, police said.
The incident came amid a new cycle of violence in Punjab, where more than 50 people have been killed during the past week in separatist attacks and clashes between extremists and security forces.
Authorities said the Khalistan Commando Force, led by self-styled Lt. Gen. Yadwinder Singh Yadu, claimed responsibility for the killings. It was the second time in a week the group had staged such an attack.
On Monday, the Khalistan Commando Force attacked a farm, dragging a group of migrant workers into a field and forcing them to stand in a row and chant separatist slogans before opening fire. Thirteen of the migrant workers were killed, including 11 Hindus.
The attack Wednesday came about 7:30 p.m. when a group of gunmen wearing police uniforms pulled their jeep into a central market in Talwandi Bhai town, located in the Firozpur district along the frontier with Pakistan about 55 miles south of Amritsar.
Police said the gunmen began firing indiscriminately into the crowd with AK-47 rifles, killing eight people instantly and wounding 16 others. Two of the wounded died later at a hospital.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in separatist violence since 1983, when Sikh extremists launched a bid for an independent state of Khalistan, or Land of the Pure, in Punjab.
Militants claim a separate nation for India's 16 million Sikhs is necessary to allow the minority community to escape alleged discrimination by the Hindu-dominated central government in New Delhi.
