![Lalru Bus Massacre, 1987 [Punjab, India]](https://www.projecthindukush.com/wp-content/uploads/547687_360W.png)
![Lalru Bus Massacre, 1987 [Punjab, India]](https://www.projecthindukush.com/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2021-12-17-10.07.08-PM-1.png)
[REPORTED AS SEEN]
Sikh terrorists commandeered a bus taking Hindus to a holy bathing site Monday and sprayed the passengers with automatic rifle fire, killing 38 people including women and children, Punjab police said.
One of the terrorists died in the crossfire as the attackers fired from inside and outside the bus, police said.
All-India Radio reported 30 passengers were injured in the attack on the bus, which carried between 75 and 79 passengers. Seven to 11 people were unhurt, the radio and police reported. Police said 11 women and three children were killed in the raid, the worst-ever Sikh bus attack against Hindus in strife-torn Punjab state.
At least seven terrorists stopped the Haryana State Roadways bus Monday night between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. (12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. EDT), A.S. Brar, senior superintendent of police in the southern Punjab district of Patiala, told The Associated Press by telephone.
The ambush occurred near Jalalpur village, about 21 miles southwest of the state capital of Chandigarh. Police had at first said there were five gunmen.
Brar said the attackers, who had followed the bus in a white foreign car and a truck, diverted it to a field and ordered the Sikh bus driver to get off.
Police said the terrorists shouted anti-Indian slogans and screamed, ″We are the Khalistan Commando Force″ – a terrorist group fighting for an independent nation. Khalistan is the name given to a separate Sikh nation.
They ordered the passengers out, but the occupants refused to leave the bus. The attackers opened fire from inside and outside the bus, Brar said, leaving 39 people dead including one of their own. The bus driver was spared, he said.
The assailants escaped and a manhunt was launched. Police later found one of the vehicles used by the terrorists, Brar said.
Police said 36 people died on the spot and two others died later.
The bus was taking the passengers from Chandigarh to Rishikesh, a Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayan foothills.
In New Delhi, the federal capital, police imposed a ban on public assembly to prevent backlash riots by Hindus against Sikhs. Such riots have occurred in New Delhi in retaliation for earlier Sikh attacks on Hindus in Punjab.
Militant Sikhs are fighting for the creation of a separate Sikh state in Punjab. Sikhs form a majority in Punjab, but the rest of India is predominantly Hindu.
Anti-Sikh riots broke out in New Delhi after terrorists killed 24 Hindu bus passengers in Punjab on Nov. 30.
No one was killed in the rioting, but last July 25, six people were killed in riots in New Delhi after terrorists killed 14 Hindu bus passengers in Punjab.
Monday’s bus massacre raised the number of people killed in Punjab by suspected Sikh terrorists to at least 494 this year.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi imposed federal rule in the state two months ago because of the terrorism.
Sikhs claim they are treated as second-class citizens in jobs, education and positions in the army. They also say Punjub state is deliberately deprived of industry and forced to remain with an economy based on agriculture.
