News In Brief

Disrespect for Constitution brings arrest of 9 Sikhs

Police arrested nine Sikh leaders Monday for destroying copies of the Indian Constitution, but tight security muffled their protest. Four Sikh leaders tore up a copy of the Constitution in Chandigarh, the Punjab capital, while five others burned a copy behind the locked gates of a New Delhi temple.

Five of the nine arrested, including the head of the Golden Temple, holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, planned to burn the Constitution outside Parliament. But they were foiled by a security clampdown in and around the capital.