Reward offered for politician killers

Reward offered for politician killers

NEW DELHI (AFP): India's authorities yesterday announced a reward of one million rupees (US$33,000) in a bid track down the assassins of chief minister of the northern state of Punjab.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the money would be given to anyone who gave information which led to the arrest of suspects involved in Thursday's assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.

Beant Singh, 73, was killed along with 15 others in the Punjab capital Chandigarh when a powerful bomb exploded as he got into his bullet-proof car in the foyer of the government secretariat. Nearly 20 others were injured in the deafening blast.

Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant group which was thought to have been wiped out in a police crackdown in Punjab three years ago, claimed responsibility for the attack.