An Indian guru who was shot in a deadly clash at a Sikh temple in Vienna over the weekend has improved and his life is no longer in danger, doctors said on Tuesday.
Austrian TV station ORF showed the Sikh leader in his hospital bed, shaking hands with an official from the Indian embassy.
“He is doing well. He is receiving all the medical care he needs,” deputy ambassador Achal Malhotra told ORF.
Sant Niranjan Dass, 68, was wounded by two bullets in the abdomen and the hip when six men — also Sikhs, and armed with knives and at least one gun — attacked a large gathering at a Vienna temple on Sunday, injuring 16 others, police said.
Another Sikh guru visiting from India, Sant Rama Nand, 57, was shot and died of his injuries after an emergency operation.
Five of the six suspects, who were subdued by the crowd, were in custody in Vienna, police spokesman Michael Takacs said on Tuesday. The sixth was in hospital in critical condition.
Investigators said that questioning the suspects and two dozen witnesses was proving difficult as they spoke a dialect of Urdu for which there were few interpreters in Vienna.
Members of the Austrian elite police unit Cobra were providing protection for Sant Niranjan Dass and the suspect who remained in hospital to prevent possible reprisals, Takacs said.
The Sikh community in Austria condemned the clash, which also sparked violence in India, and on Tuesday said it “condemns every form of fanaticism.”
The temple where the attack occurred said it had received threats from another Viennese Sikh temple in connection with the visit by the two Indian gurus.
Opened in December 2005, the temple has protested the caste system that remains popular among many Sikhs and has been accused of not strictly following Sikh traditions.
In northern India, violence subsided on Tuesday as troops patrolled streets and a curfew remained in place after riots broke out a day earlier over the attack in Austria.
At least three people died in Monday’s violence as hundreds attacked police stations and torched trains and vehicles, said Parkash Singh Badal, the top elected official in Punjab state.
Protesters attempted to disrupt traffic on national highways on Tuesday, but police and paramilitary guards moved quickly to clear crowds, he said.
Rail services remained suspended in several areas of Punjab and thousands of passengers were stranded at railway stations, news reports said on Tuesday.
RSS