NEW DELHI – Riots erupted across the Punjab region of India yesterday in response to the killing of the leader of a Sikh sect who died in an attack on a temple in Austria on Sunday.
At least one person was killed and Indian authorities placed four towns under a curfew after a day of violent protests following the attack in Vienna on the sect leaders, who were visiting the large Sikh community in Europe.
Witnesses said the Vienna temple was attacked by Sikhs from a higher caste who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the religion's holy book.
"We're assuming the content of the sermon was the trigger," Werner Autericky, a Vienna police official told the Austria Press Agency.
Worshippers used a frying pan and microphone stands to fend off six knife- and gun-wielding assailants. One of the leaders, Guru Sant Rama Nand, died of his injuries. Sant Niranjan Dass was in stable condition following surgery.
The two men were the leaders of the Dera Sach Khand sect, which reveres a saint born in the 15th century to a family of leather workers, considered ``untouchables" or outcastes, and known today as Dalits.
Though the bloodshed happened a continent away, news of the attack, by text messages and mobile phone calls sent from the vast community of Sikh émigrés in Europe, came to Punjab almost instantly. The rioting quickly followed.
Television stations in India beamed images of sect members parading through the streets of Punjab with swords, metal rods and sharpened sticks aloft. The rioters smashed cars and set fire to empty trains, snarling traffic.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, said in a statement, "I appeal to all sections of the people in Punjab to abjure violence and maintain peace."
With files from Associated Press
