Gunfire erupted at the Gurdwara Sahib Sikh temple in Fremont yesterday, leaving one man injured after a service commemorating two militant figures who died in the Sikh community's ongoing conflict with the Indian government.

The victim, identified as Balwinder Singh, 47, of New York City, by the temple's general secretary, Balbir Singh, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley last night. He had been shot in the stomach.

The general secretary also said that two men known to temple members — Ajit Singh and Gurbachan Singh Rana — were taken into custody by police after the shooting.

The temple has previously been the site of violence between temple members and other Sikhs whom they suspect of being agents of the Indian government.

The day started normally enough with services conducted in the domed, cream-colored stucco temple on Gurdwara Road. The temple serves as a cultural and religious center for Sikh immigrants from the Punjab region of northwestern India. It has an estimated 7,000 members.

For four hours, worshipers offered prayers to memorialize two young men hanged three years ago by the Indian government. The two had been convicted of helping assassinate an Indian general they considered responsible for the 1984 massacre of Sikh worshipers inside the Golden Temple, a Sikh holy place in the Punjabi city of Amritsar.

Tensions between Sikhs and the government have been high ever since, and many Sikhs continue to agitate for an independent homeland.

“We were just praying, very peacefully, and read from the holy book,” said Sarah Gill, a temple member who left before the violence erupted.

At about 2:15 p.m., Balbir Singh, the temple secretary, was standing in the back of the blue carpeted temple room when he heard gunfire.

Singh went onto a covered walkway outside and saw the New York visitor lying on the ground bleeding while another man, whom he identified as Ajit Singh, ran into the temple sanctuary.

Another worshiper, Gurmeet Singh, chased the gunman into the - SIKH: Page A24 Col. 1

(Photo Don Richey/For The Chronicle)
Gurmeet Singh showed where a bullet was deflected by his sword - he was uninjured but another man was shot

San Francisco Chronicle - Monday October 10, 1994
SIKH: Man Shot at Temple

From Page A17

sanctuary, where a few people were standing and praying. The gunman fired three more shots. Two hit the walls, and the third, fired directly at Gurmeet Singh, was stopped by his ceremonial wood and metal sword. The sword is traditionally worn by male Sikhs.

The gunman fled on foot and was arrested shortly afterward by Fremont police about a mile from the temple.

The second man, who temple members said was an associate of Ajit Singh, was discovered in the temple kitchen. Temple members said the man had cut himself with a knife and claimed to have been injured in the melee.

The Gurdwara temple in Fremont was founded in 1979 on Hillside Avenue and has since become the largest Sikh temple in Northern California, becoming so prominent that the street name was changed to Gurdwara Road.

Members of the temple have been at odds with Sikhs they consider allied with the Indian government since the 1984 massacre at the Golden Temple, which Sikhs consider their most sacred place.

In 1991, Gary Basrai, 39, a Fremont pharmacist, was charged. with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly ramming his car into another vehicle after a brawl that followed a memorial service at the temple.

Temple members said at the time that, the argument began when a group of Sikhs suspected of being intelligence agents for the Indian government tried to enter the temple and an altercation arose between temple members who wanted to admit them and those who wanted to keep them out.

Violence also erupted at the temple grounds in November 1984, when a Bakersfield group identifying itself as a Sikh faction fired shots at a temple crowd. No one was injured, but police arrested six of the attackers.