Niranjan Dass | Sant Niranjan Dass | Sant Niranjan Dass Health Latest News

Niranjan Dass | Sant Niranjan Dass | Sant Niranjan Dass Health Latest News

Indian Sikh Guru Sant Niranjan Dass lying on a bed at a hospital in Vienna

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 announced Tuesday.

Austrian television ORF showed the Sikh leader in his hospital bed, shaking hands with an official from the Indian embassy in Vienna.

"He is doing well. He is receiving all the medical care he needs," deputy ambassador Achal Malhotra also 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 early Monday of his injuries after an emergency operation.

Five of the six suspects, who were subdued by the crowd, were currently in custody in Vienna, police spokesman Michael Takacs said Tuesday. The sixth was still in hospital in critical condition.

Investigators noted however that questioning of the suspects and two dozen witnesses was proving difficult, as they spoke an Urdu dialect and few interpreters were available 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 the historic homeland of Sikhism in India, and insisted Tuesday it "condemns every form of fanaticism."

The temple at Pelzgasse, 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, it has protested the caste system that remains popular among some Sikhs and has been accused of not strictly following Sikh traditions.

About 2,800 Sikhs live in Austria, according to statistics.

The unrest in India caused at least two deaths in separate incidents, and security was tight across the northern state of Punjab Tuesday, with armed police enforcing a curfew in all major towns and cities.