Austria: Brawl In Sikh Temple Leaves Preacher Dead - UPDATES

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A policeman stands in front of a building in Vienna's Rudolfsheim district, housing an Indian temple, following
a shooting, Sunday May 24, 2009, inside.

Police in Austria say up to 30 people have been wounded, nine severely, in a shooting at the Indian temple.

Police spokesman Michael Takacs told Austria Press Agency five men entered a place of worship for an Indian religious community early afternoon Sunday and started firing at those present.

Police arrested all five suspects, Takacs said.



(AP Photo/
Ronald Zak)

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                                  Up to 11 wounded in attack on Vienna Sikh temple





VIENNA

– Groups of rival worshippers at a Sikh temple in the Austrian capital pulled knives and at least one handgun in a mass fight Sunday, police and ambulance staff said. At least 11 people were wounded.

Witnesses said the fight erupted after a dispute over the sermon, given by a man identified by the Austria Press Agency as Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha. Police said at least six men, one wielding a gun and the others knives, attacked the preacher. Others rushed to his aid, resulting in the melee.

Police spokesman Michael Takacs told APA that one of the attackers is in critical condition, while the wounds of the others were less serious. More people may have been slightly hurt and have run outside the temple before police arrived, he said.

Four ambulances and three medical helicopters transported the victims to the hospital.

The temple is situated in Vienna-Rudolfsheim, the capital's 15th district.

Police cordoned off the area.

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                                      Thirty injured in clashes in Vienna Sikh temple
           






VIENNA
(AFP)

– About 30 people were wounded, nine of them seriously, as rival factions in the Sikh community clashed inside a Sikh temple in the Austrian capital Vienna, police and emergency services said Sunday.

Fighting broke out at around 1:30 pm (1130 GMT), when a group of Sikhs opposed to the sermon given by Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha, a guru visiting from India, produced knives and a gun inside the temple.

"Six people did not agree (with the sermon)," police spokesman Michael Takacs told Austrian public radio.

"One drew a firearm, the others knives. The six people were overpowered by members of the community and seriously injured," he added.

One of those wounded was fighting for his life, said Takacs.

Police officers had recovered at least three spent cartridges inside the temple, where 200 people had gathered for the service.

The wounded were evacuated in three helicopters to several hospitals, said the emergency services.

The violence had its roots in a long-longing religious dispute inside the community, one of those at the scene, Jasuf Kalder, told Austria's APA agency.

Followers of the temple in Vienna's 15th district had clashed with several other Sikh temples in the city since it opened in December 2005, and these other communities were opposed to the arrival of the guru at this temple, said Kalder.

Local police had been warned about the tension surrounding the guru's visit, Kalder added.

"All the people implicated (in the incident) have been arrested," a police spokesman in Vienna told AFP, without specifying the number of arrests.

Public radio in Vienna reported five arrests.

According to the latest figures, the Sikh religious community, has tens of thousands of followers in Austria and some 25 million worldwide, most of them in northern India.

Their religious tradition requires men to wear a turban.

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                                    Austria: brawl in Sikh temple leaves preacher dead
           





Veronika Oleksyn,
Associated Press Writer 
May 25, 2009
VIENNA

– A Sikh preacher died Monday after being wounded in an attack on his temple by a group of fundamentalist Sikhs armed with knives and a handgun, police said. India's prime minister appealed for calm as riots protesting the deadly shooting spread to several northern Indian cities.

Witnesses said the Vienna temple attended by lower-caste Sikhs had been attacked by Sikhs from a higher caste who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the religion's Holy Book.

The attack set off a brawl that wounded 16. It was not clear whether some of the weapons used were kirpans — ceremonial daggers that may legally be worn by Sikhs in Austria.

Two preachers — identified by Indian diplomats as Niranjan Das and Sant Rama Nand — underwent operations for gunshot wounds, but Nand died early Monday, according to a police official who declined to identify himself on the telephone, in line with Austrian custom.

Hundreds in India 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 in Indian centered on the north Indian town of city of Jalandhar, a stronghold of the Dera Sach Khand, a Sikh sect comprised of mainly "untouchables," or Dalits.

Worshipper Mohnder Ram, 72, who has lived in Vienna for decades, said the temple that was attacked had been attended by followers of Shri Guru Ravidas, the 14th-century founder of the sect. Witnesses said the group of bearded and turbaned men raided the temple as the preachers led several hundred worshippers in prayer. Followers moved to defend their leaders.

"I heard four to five shots" in the temple, said Ram. "People started screaming, children were crying as they ran out. It was like war. There was lots of blood everywhere."

Six suspects are in custody, including four wounded and in serious condition, police spokesman Michael Takacs said, adding that more may be detained. The wounded were all of Indian origin and aged between 30 and 50, said Bernhard Segall of Vienna medical services. The most serious wounds were caused by gunshots to the abdomen and head.

The temple is housed in a residential building of the working-class neighborhood of Vienna-Rudolfsheim.

Ram said about 400 people were at the service when the fight broke out; police put the number at between 150 and 300.

The scene was "like a battlefield," Takacs said.

Nearby resident Bimla Lalka said she saw seven or eight men with long beards and dark blue and orange turbans fleeing the building.

Sikhs make up less than 2 percent of India's nearly 1.2 billion people.

Caste discrimination has been outlawed in India for more than a half century, and a quota system was established with the aim of giving Dalits a fair share of government jobs and places in schools. But their plight remains dire, living in poverty and kept down by ancient prejudice and caste-based politics.

___

Associated Press writers

Muneeza Naqvi
in New Delhi and

Eric Willemsen
in Vienna

contributed to this report.



(This version CORRECTS that witness said worshippers, not attackers, were lower-case Sikhs)