Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot and killed at her home Wednesday by two gunmen identified by police officials as Sikh members of her personal bodyguard. Mrs. Gandhi's only surviving son, Rajiv, was sworn in Wednesday night as her successor. Mrs. Gandhi was killed by at least eight bullets fired at close range from a submachine gun and a pistol by two men, according to police officials. One of the men was said to have been killed by other guards on the scene. The other was reported captured.
Last June Mrs. Gandhi tried to break the back of the terrorist movement by raiding the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. The Sikhs broke away from the Hindus around A.D. 1500 to form a separate religion based on a belief in one God and the rejection of the caste system. When Government troops attacked the Golden Temple this spring, the shrine was being used by the Sikh terrorists to launch a campaign of violence in the Punjab and as a fortress and headquarters. At least 600 people, including the terrorist leaders, died in the temple fight on June 5 and 6.
On Wednesday, the Hindu attacks on Sikhs began as word of the assassination spread. In scenes reminiscent of earlier sectarian violence, Sikhs were stopped at random on the streets and beaten, and sometimes their beards were set afire.
Mr. Gandhi became the sixth Prime Minister of India since it became independent in 1947. His succession perpetuated the rule that began with his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, the nation's first Prime Minister.
Source: New York Times
