2,500 Indian Troops Battle Extremists at Sikhs’ Golden Temple; 5 Reported Dead

AMRITSAR, India —  More than 2,500 government troops Monday fought a gun battle with extremists inside Sikhism’s holiest shrine and sealed off the temple.

Police said at least five people were killed and five wounded. Witnesses said the fighting continued late Monday.

Militants began shooting from the Golden Temple after they spotted officers inspecting their positions from outside the temple. Security forces fired back with light machine guns, said Baldev Singh, superintendent of police in Amritsar.

Sikh radicals have used the complex as a haven before. In June 1984, the army raided it. According to unofficial but reliable sources, 1,200 people were killed in the assault.

Less than four months later, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, setting off anti-Sikh riots in which more than 2,000 were killed.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the walled central district of Amritsar to keep civilians indoors.

Extremists have been fighting since 1982 for a separate Sikh nation in the northern agricultural province of Punjab, and thousands of people have been killed. Sikhs make up less than 2% of India’s 800 million people but are a majority in Punjab.

Violence has increased since Jasbir Singh Rode was made the Golden Temple’s chief priest early in March. He had been jailed under government anti-terrorism rules but was released in an effort by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to placate Sikh extremists.