Man killed for chewing tobacco near Golden Temple

AMRITSAR, India: Indian police said on Friday they had arrested three members of a radical Sikh sect accused of hacking to death a young man for chewing tobacco near the Golden Temple, the faith’s holiest shrine.

Harmanjeet Singh, 22, was killed after an altercation with three Nihangs -- a radical Sikh warrior sect known for dressing in blue robes, carrying swords, and a puritanical moral code. The trio had accused Singh of being drunk and consuming tobacco -- both prohibited under the religion’s codes of conduct. "The incident occurred in full public view," Amritsar police commissioner Arun Pal Singh told reporters Thursday, a day after the murder.