The World - News from July 23, 1987

Sikh terrorists struck in three places in the Indian state of Punjab, killing nine people, including a prominent Communist official and three members of his family, police said. Five people were injured. Communist Party of India official Swaran Singh, his wife, mother and daughter were shot to death as they slept at their home in Sohal, 40 miles northeast of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, police said. The other attacks occurred in Kortapur, where a husband and wife were killed, and in Mahalpura, where a shopkeeper and his son were killed. The Khalistan Commando Force, the largest of the Sikh militant groups waging a secessionist campaign in Punjab, claimed responsibility for the killings.