Opinion October 27, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Amritsar blast

One person was killed and several others injured when a grenade was thrown at a religious procession taken out on the eve of Dussehra in front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The dead could not be identified. The injured included the Superintendent of Police and 18 other police, CRPF and Punjab Armed Police personnel. On-the-spot inquiries failed to confirm the persons responsible for throwing the grenade. Tension also spread in the city when a young Nihang, Balwant Singh, shot at by the deputy superintendent of police, Lajwant Singh, later died in the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital.

Assam elections

The Assam Students Union leaders reiterated that elections would not be allowed to be held for the state assembly next March without a solution to the foreign nationals problem. The AASU leaders said that though the Congress-S, CPM and CPI leaders voiced their reservations on postponement of elections, most opposition leaders agreed that elections should not be imposed.

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Pakistan’s rockets

Pakistan has set up a rocket manufacturing plant at Karachi to monitor high altitude in space, Radio Pakistan reported. The plant would also help communication through satellites, the radio said.

Peace plans

The Islamic Peace Commission has achieved “some progress” towards ending the two-year-old Iran-Iraq war, the Iraqi News Agency reported. A foreign ministry spokesman, told INA, “the proposals which call for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of the forces of both countries to internationally recognised borders, suggested the deployment of forces of observers from the members of the Islamic conference.”