The World - News from Dec. 25, 1986

Sikh extremists killed four people, including Harbhajan Kaur Khalsa, a prominent woman member of the ruling Akali Dal party, in Punjab state, police said. The murder of Khalsa, formerly a member of the extremist faction, by two gunmen in Jullundur was interpreted as a warning to other militants not to forsake the movement for a Sikh homeland in Punjab. A Sikh and two Hindus were killed in separate attacks, raising the death toll in Punjab’s extremist violence this year to 684. Meanwhile, in an unprecedented action, hard-liners removed two moderate high priests from the committee that governs the state’s Sikh temples.