Presented by Alastair Burnett ITN. Ken Rees reporting in New Delhi.

“In the rioting in India today, at least 148 people are reported to have been killed and about a thousand have been injured. As Hindus have taken revenge on Sikhs for the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi. Troops in New Delhi and Calcutta have been ordered to shoot rioters and looters on site. There are curfews in 25 cities. Mrs. Thatcher will have armed guards with her when she goes to Delhi tomorrow for the funeral of Mrs. Gandhi on Saturday morning. Princess Anne will represent the Queen at the funeral and will then come home immediately, curtailing her tour. Because of doubts about security. The Foreign Office has revised its first advice and has warned British people not to travel to India.

The authority of the new Indian Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi is now said to be on trial. Besides New Delhi and Calcutta, the cities under curfew because of the riots include Banaris, the Hindu holy city, Kanpur, Lucknow capital of Uttar Pradesh, Patna, the Bihar capital in central India in Indore and Jabalpur, Jammu in the far northwest, Argatala in the northeast.

In Punjab, the state where most of India’s 12 million Sikhs live, news is being censored to try to stop the killings.

Alastair Burnett, ITN

This morning twelve days of national mourning began for all India. From first light, crowds began to gather at the house where Mrs. Gandhi’s body was to lie in state, it was once the home of her father, Pandit Nehru. Escorted by an army detail, the coffin was draped in the national colours of India green, white and saffron. Some of the crowd chanted Indira blood for blood. They carried the coffin in. It was a symbolic end to her 17 year rule of India. Among the chief mourners this morning, her son, suddenly the leader of 730 million people. All day TV and radio have carried his appeals for people not to let their grief turn to anger. Outside, some of the mourners couldn’t contain their grief. But even as the Sikh President of India, Zail Singh laid the first official wreath on the body, outside the mobs had taken to the streets.

From many parts of the country and despite the presence of large numbers of police, there have been scores of clashes. Here in the capital, Delhi we saw dozens of instances like this.

Mobs of angry Hindus attacking Sikh businesses, looking for Sikh people and burning Sikh cars. Reports of violence and deaths have been coming in from many parts of the country.

Ken Rees, ITN

And despite the presence of large numbers of police, there have been scores of clashes in the capital, as Hindus continued their revenge against the Sikhs. Sikhs drive most of the taxis in Delhi and they were a major target for the mobs today.

Sikh temples also came under attack. At the main temple in the centre of the city, a Hindu mob threw stones and tried but failed to get into the building. Tonight, as a partial curfew was imposed. Many Sikhs and police were on the streets, guarding their property and their homes, but saying they were prepared to fight.

We don’t want any protection from the police because if they allow us, we will see them. You will deal with it? Yes, we will deal. We are not coward people.

Tonight, the situation appears a lot more calm, but that’s because a partial curfew has removed many of the mobs from the streets. Nevertheless, we’ve passed scores of vehicles like this within the last half an hour and much depends now on whether the TV and radio appeals for calm that are going out constantly here, are in fact being heeded by both communities.

Sikhs and Hindus in Britain appear to have stayed calm, although the Metropolitan Police are asking the Home Secretary to ban all political marches in Southall from Saturday as a precaution.

Asian leaders have criticised those Southall Sikhs who yesterday celebrated Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. Today, the different communities there sat down together in a quite different mood. They came to mourn Indira Gandhi. Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims united in sorrow and grief.

John Underwood, ITN

Only one day before her death, she was speaking to her people, who gathered there in thousands to listen. She said, “If I die for my people, I will be proud.” And next very day, she was killed. By her own bodyguard. A Sikh community leader, said Mrs Gandhi had made some mistakes, but he said, we all join together to pray for her. Tonight, Southall is quiet, but to guard against possible trouble, the police here are seeking a ban on political marches and leaders of the Indian communities say they support the ban.
John Underwood, News at Ten, West London.”

Ken Rees of ITN reporting on the anti-Sikh violence from New Delhi.