The Return OF Terror?

Khalistani activists are trying to lure impressionable Sikh youth for their cause, aided by Pakistan's ISI.

- Asit Jolly

The nirankari congregation at Adliwal village outside Amritsar was at its peak given that it was a particularly pleasant Sunday morning on November 18. Then, just before noon, two young men, cotton scarves masking their faces, rode up on a motorcycle. One pointed a pistol at the two women volunteers on security duty at the gate of the satsang bhavan (prayer hall), while the second, who had been riding pillion, rushed inside and lobbed a grenade. The deafening explosion indoors killed three worshippers. Some 21 others sustained shrapnel injuries.

Police said Nirankari congregations, which have been off most terrorist hit lists since the late 1980s, was a deliberately selected ‘soft target’.