CHANDIGARH: India's prime minister appealed for calm Monday as riots spread to several northern Indian cities to protest a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Austria. Hundreds defied a curfew and army patrols, attacking police stations and torching the car of a senior officer and several trains. In two places police opened fire on mobs, wounding at least four people, said senior police officer Khubi Ram. The violence centered on the north Indian city of Jalandhar, a stronghold of the Dera Sach Khand, a Sikh sect comprised of mainly``untouchables,'' or Dalits. A leader of the sect was killed and another preacher wounded Sunday when Sikhs wielding knives and a handgun attacked the two in Vienna. At least 15 other people were wounded, Austrian police said. Witnesses said the perpetrators were fundamentalist Sikhs from a higher caste, who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the Holy Book.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India's first leader of the Sikh faith, said he was ``deeply distressed'' by the attack and subsequent violence. ``Whatever the provocation, it is important to maintain peace and harmony among different sections of the people,'' Singh said, adding that ``Sikhism preaches tolerance and harmony.'' Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said India was working with Austrian authorities to ``ensure that the perpetrators of this completely mindless and wanton attack are brought to justice. `` Late Sunday after news of the Vienna attack, hundreds of Dera Sach Khand followers, supported by other local Dalit organizations, took to the streets of Jalandhar, burning several vehicles and a bank, stoning buses and blocking railway lines and roads, police said. Sporadic violence was also reported from several nearby towns, said Sanjiv Kalra, a senior police official at Jalandhar, some 210miles (337 kilometers) northwest of New Delhi. On Monday morning, about 400 soldiers patrolled the area and police set up roadblocks across the city. Initially it appeared that the move had restored calm, but later protests spread to at least five nearby cities.``Curfew in the entire district has been extended for an indefinite period and five columns of army have been deployed to control the violence,'' local government official A.S. Pannu told news agency.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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