In Punjab, Sikh Turns Against Sikh
LEAD: A new kind of violence is on the rise in Punjab State. Entire Sikh families are being attacked by Sikh militants armed with increasingly advanced weapons and a determination to terrorize or eliminate those of their own people who will not cooperate with their separatist cause.
A new kind of violence is on the rise in Punjab State. Entire Sikh families are being attacked by Sikh militants armed with increasingly advanced weapons and a determination to terrorize or eliminate those of their own people who will not cooperate with their separatist cause.
''More than 75 percent of the killings are now of Sikhs, not Hindus,'' Darbara Singh, a former Chief Minister of Punjab and now a member of Parliament from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party, said in an interview.
In one incident this week, gunmen burst into a farmhouse near Amritsar and opened fired on a Sikh family at dinner. Six people were killed. Only a small grandson of the farmer survived; the boy's brother was apparently kidnapped before the house was set on fire. More than 400 people are thought to have been killed in attacks in the state since the beginning of the year.
On Wednesday, an internationally known Punjabi writer, Atvar Singh, was shot to death as he bathed at a village well in Talwandi Salme. Mr. Singh, who wrote under the name Paash, was a resident of the United States, where he spoke out against Sikh separatism. Tactics to Deal With Violence
Over the last few weeks, the Gandhi Government, faced with this worsening situation on the strategic border with Pakistan, has introduced a new set of tactics to deal with the violence. Some of these - particularly the dissolution of the state assembly in Punjab and the amending of the national Constitution to allow the suspension of some civil liberties in the state - are provoking political and public disputes.
Critics charge that the constitutional amendment, which passed its final vote in the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday and became law, will gag the press and effectively close Punjab and cut off public discussion about events there as the army and police move to quell the violence.
Darbara Singh said that under the new legislation, ''terrorists will be rounded up.'' Sikh leaders say that more than 5,000 Sikhs have been detained over the last two to three years.
Mr. Singh also said steps would be taken to seal and strengthen the long border with Pakistan.
Government supporters and members of the Sikh opposition say there is substantial evidence to link Pakistan with Sikh terrorism in Punjab. Many Punjabis fear that a settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan could release many more advanced weapons, now in the hands of Afghan rebels, to the Sikh militants, who are thought to be trained in Pakistani camps. Attack With Rocket Launchers
This week, for the first time in the Punjab conflict, rocket launchers were used to attack a police outpost.
The police, army troops and the families of uncooperative Sikh citizens or those believed by the militants to be informers, are all targets. Earlier targets were Hindus in attempts to provoke a sustained Hindu backlash; this did not succeed. Militant Sikhs also rob banks and extort money from shops and businesses.
''These boys are learning that the rifle is the thing that gets them bread and butter,'' a Sikh community leader said, repeating a frequently heard fear that Punjab is losing too many unemployed rural young Sikh men to a cult of violence.
On March 4, in a bold political gamble, the Indian Government released from detention five leading Sikh priests associated with the campaign for Khalistan, the name for the independent homeland desired by Sikh separatists. One of the released prisoners, Jasbir Singh Rode, was installed a few days later as head priest of the Sikhs' supreme council, based at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
The Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, again shelters bands of well-armed militants four years after the Indian Army cleared it of Sikh fighters in a bloody battle. Government officials say Mr. Gandhi is giving Mr. Rode a chance to bring the militants back into the political mainstream. But moderate Sikh opposition politicians say that neither they nor the militants trust Mr. Rode, on the assumption that he made a deal with the Government in return for his release. Doubts About a Gamble
''This is a gamble that's not going to work,'' said Amrinder Singh, a leader of the United Akali Dal, a Punjab-based political party. In an interview, he described Mr. Gandhi's move as ''not a serious effort, but a gesture geared to the next election.'' Mr. Gandhi is expected to call a national election before his five-year term expires in 1989.
Among Sikh community leaders, other concerns are also being discussed. There is a fear that violent Sikh leftists in Punjab, possibly with foreign support, are resurfacing from a period underground to benefit from youthful alienation. Among those killed have been members of legal Communist parties.
Before he was imprisoned in 1984, 33-year-old Mr. Rode had made several world tours seeking support for the militant Sikhs. After berating India in public appearances in the Middle East and Pakistan, he was arrested in the Philippines in 1984, extradited and flown to India in a special Government aircraft.
There is also apprehension among Sikhs about the emergence of a fundamentalist strain of Sikhism, which, Darbara Singh said, ''is exploiting our religion in a very nasty way'' by mixing politics with religion and introducing violence in the name of Sikh nationalism.
Sikh militants killing their fellow Sikhs ''want to create a scare,'' Darbara Singh said. ''They kill police. They kill Hindus. They kill Sikhs. They want that the Sikhs outside, in all of India, should be disturbed.''
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