India Marks Death of Indira Gandhi; Sikhs Hail Killers
NEW DELHI — While officials attending a memorial service for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the anniversary of her assassination today hailed her as a martyr, thousands of Sikhs thronged their holiest shrine to extol her two killers.
The 66-year-old Gandhi was slain two years ago by two Sikh guards in her New Delhi garden.
Government officials gathered at her riverside memorial in New Delhi. Commandos ringed the area as her son and successor, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, arrived wearing a bulletproof vest.
In Amritsar, more than 12,000 people thronged the Golden Temple and paid homage to Gandhi’s assassins.
Bimal Khalsa, the widow of assassin Beant Singh, and other radicals delivered anti-government speeches. “Today is not a day of sorrow,” she told a cheering crowd in the temple.
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