1983 Dhilwan bus massacre [Punjab, India]

REPORTED AS SEEN 

Two Sikh extremists hijacked a New Delhi-bound bus in northern Punjab state Wednesday night and opened fire on Hindu passengers with a machine gun, killing six and wounding another, official reports said.

The killings were the most bloody recent incident of anti-Hindu violence by Sikh militants in the volatile northern state.

According to official police reports Thursday, the two unidentified extremists either boarded the private bus at the Sikh holy city of Amritsar or got on at a nearby stop.

When the bus reached a railway bridge near the Amritsar-Kapurthala district border, the extremists pulled out a machine gun and ordered the driver to proceed to another road, the reports said.

‘The two extremists killed the passengers belonging to one community (Hindus) as the bus was near Nurpur Labana village,’ 250 miles north of New Delhi, one report said.

The gunmen then told Sikh and other passengers to get off the bus and drove it about a mile, where it was later found abandoned.

Police said six of the passengers died on the spot. Another was seriously wounded and was taken to a hospital.

Police officials sealed off the area in an attempt catch the gunmen.