NEW DELHI, India -- In a major breakthrough for police a leader of one of the most notorious Sikh militant groups was shot and killed early Tuesday in the insurgency-wracked north Indian state of Punjab, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Balwinder Singh, the newly appointed chief of the 'Bhindranwale Tigers Force' was killed in an hour-long gunbattle with police near Amritsar, the Sikh holy city and seat of the Golden Temple, the news agency reported.
Singh took over as leader of the BTF after the slaying of Gurbachan Singh Manochahal -- blamed for more than 1,000 killings -- in late February.
Manochalal, 45, was a confidant of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale -- the militant Sikh preacher who spearheaded a campaign to create an independent homeland. Bhindranwale was killed in 1984 in a police raid in the Golden Temple that left hundreds of people dead.
Meanwhile, four other militants, including Tarsem Singh Konke -- the deputy chief of the 'Khalistan Liberation Force' -- were killed in separate incidents in Punjab Tuesday, PTI reported.
All Sikh men use the title 'Singh,' which means lion.
PTI said that in 1986 Balwinder Singh had masterminded a plot to kill the then-Director General of Punjab Police, J.F. Ribeiro. Ribeiro escaped unharmed but his wife was injured in the attack.
Singh was responsible for more than 100 killings, according to authorities.
The current Punjab Police Chief K.P.S. Gill is heading an intensive campaign to wipe out militancy in Sikh-dominated Punjab. He pledged earlier this year to complete the efrot by the middle of March.
Authorities said hundreds of underground rebels have surrendered to police since early January as a result of the anti-guerrilla crackdown.
For the past decade Sikh separatists have been pursuing a bloody campaign to establish an independent homeland to be named Khalistan -- Land of the Pure.
Thousands, including many civilians, have died in the fighting.
