In the 1980s and 1990s, the quest for a separate country known as “Khalistan” led to fatal violence, and Indian police confirmed Monday that they had murdered three Sikh separatists in that struggle.
Following accusations that Indian intelligence agents were responsible for the murder of a prominent Sikh leader in Canada and an attempted assassination in the United States last year, which New Delhi denied, the Khalistan movement was at the center of a diplomatic conflagration.
In the most recent occurrence, a gunfight in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit area resulted in the death of the Khalistani militants.
The men were wanted for allegedly taking part in this month’s grenade attack on a Punjab state police outpost.
