47 cops get life terms for killing Sikh pilgrims

LUCKNOW: A special court in India has sentenced 47 policemen to life in prison for killing a group of Sikh pilgrims in 1991 whom they had claimed were militants, a prosecutor said.

The officers were convicted of shooting dead the pilgrims to try and earn promotions in Uttar Pradesh state which at the time was hit by Sikh militant activity, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. The officers stopped a bus carrying the pilgrims and their families before later marching 11 of them into a jungle area of the northern state and carrying out the killings, prosecutor SC Jaiswal said.