AMRITSAR, India -- Sikh extremist violence in northern Punjab state left nine people dead Saturday, including a senior police official and his three bodyguards who were victims of a land mine blast beneath their vehicle, police said.
Harjit Singh, a superitendent of police and three of his bodyguards were killed when the mine exploded beneath the car near Singh's home in Tarn Taran, 20 miles south of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, police said.
The driver was seriously injured.
Police said the attack was carried out by members of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force, one of numerous Sikh militant groups waging a bloody campaign for a separate state to be called 'Khalistan' or 'Land of the Pure' in Punjab.
The group last month had issued a death threat against Singh for his alleged role in killing some members of the group, including a self- styled militant leader, police said.
In another attack, radicals in Patti, a town 15 miles southwest of Tarn Taran, shot and killed five Hindus from two homes, police said.
The victims were forced out of their homes to a nearby open space and riddled with bullets, police said.
Separatist violence has been almost a daily occurence in Punjab during the past four years, and the number of people killed in the campaign has gone up over the past one week with police estimating 150 deaths. At least 2,800 people have been killed this year alone.
Sikh militants say members of their faith need a separate state to escape alleged discrimination practised against them by the Hindu- dominated central government. Sikhs make up 2 percent of India's 850 million people.
