Presented by John Bacon ITN. Including an interview with UK PM Thatcher, Ken Rees reporting in New Delhi.

“The Indian Government’s preparing a huge security operation to protect the world’s heads of state, after three days of riots in which at least 400 people have been killed, a hundred this afternoon. For safety, the foreign leaders will take a separate route from the funeral procession, through the Delhi streets. At Heathrow, Mrs Thatcher said she knew there was a security risk and she condemned the Sikhs here who celebrated Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. Tonight, Delhi and five other Indian cities are still under curfew. Troops have been ordered to shoot rioters on site and most Sikhs in Delhi are in hiding, with hundreds of homes and businesses in ruins.

There was tight security around the south side of Heathrow for the departure of Britain’s political leaders, as police watch closely, Mrs Thatcher spoke about her own security in Delhi, but first she expressed deep concern about the reaction in this country to Mrs Gandhi’s assassination.

This morning, we received a message from Delhi, that both the government and the people of India are really both indignant and distressed about the really outrageous behaviour of a tiny minority of people in this country who gloated over the murder of Mrs Gandhi.

Mrs Thatcher

This is the celebrating Sikhs you’re talking about?

Yes, I think that people in India are right to feel indignant and distressed about that.

Are you concerned about your own security in Delhi? One is no longer concerned about one’s own security,

Prime Minister, it must have crossed your mind though, surely?

Oh, yes. It’s just something one lives with.

It is going to be a massive security problem in Delhi, having all the world leaders, people like you.

It will be. But we go to mourn the loss of Indira Gandhi and we believe that the Indian Government will do everything it can for security, both for the sake of its own people and for those leaders who are going.

Do you know? Still go. We must still go.

The Labour leader, Mr Kinnock, said he was not worried about his security in Delhi. The Indian Army was extremely vigilant, he said. David Steele, the Liberal leader, left without commenting. But David Owen said of the security risks, we have all lived with it for many years. Before the RAF VC Ten took off, Mrs Thatcher also revealed that she already knew Rajiv Gandhi, the new Indian Prime Minister, and that she’d be meeting him again while she was in Delhi. David Rose. ITN, Heathrow Airport.

Delhi was still burning today after 24 hours of the worst rioting seen here since Partition, nearly 40 years ago. The mobs had been seeking revenge for the death of Mrs Gandhi at Sikh hands. Many Sikhs have fled, despite the presence on the streets of large numbers of heavily armed soldiers. The rioting and firing of buildings lasted through the night. Hundreds of Sikh business premises have been destroyed. Many businessmen told us they’d lost a lifetime’s work and property, at the hands of the mob. Official figures show over two and a half thousand vehicles burnt out, over 100 dead and thousands injured. There are real fears now of a backlash as Sikhs look for revenge.

So, tonight on TV, the new Prime Minister again appealed for calm.

Communal madness will destroy us. It will destroy everything India stands for. As Prime Minister of India, I cannot and will not allow this.

Not even a curfew could stop these people from taking to the streets. Mourners, carrying a relative, a victim of the rioting, to his cremation. This afternoon, the army continued to move in strength into central Delhi to keep the peace and prepare for tomorrow’s funeral. At first, today, the city centre was almost deserted, with shops and businesses closed. There were severe shortages of food and drink. And as the day wore on, more and more people were forced to take to the streets anyway, looking for supplies or moving nearer the funeral site. At the luxury hotel, where most world leaders will stay, security guards were already screening everyone. Guards with machine guns stood alongside commissioners at every door. But tomorrow the real nightmare, when the funeral procession leaves the safety of the government buildings and moves on its four hour procession through the troubled streets of Delhi. These are the sort of conditions that are worrying the security men. It’s now 05:00 in this Delhi street. It’s starting to get dark. The streets are crowded already, but tomorrow there’ll be millions of people here trying to follow Mrs Gandhi’s funeral procession. Many of the leaders are already here. Mrs Thatcher comes tomorrow. Ken Rees. ITN, Delhi.

The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr. Tikhonov, the American Secretary of State, George Schultz,  Mrs. Thatcher from Britain and Monsieur Fabius from France, will be amongst the world leaders, presenting India with a major security problem tomorrow. The funeral four years ago of Mrs Gandhi’s son Sanjay, brought massive hysterical crowds onto the streets. Tomorrow, those crowds will be bigger, with the added danger from the communal anger at the assassination. When Mrs Gandhi’s father, Jawaharlal Nehru, died 20 years ago, Lord Hume represented Britain. Then, though there were few of the security problems of today. No Sikh terrorism. From her lying in state at her childhood home. Mrs Gandhi’s body will be borne on an open carriage through the main streets of Delhi, past India gate and onto the main shopping centre at Connaught Place, where the crowds will be infiltrated by armed secret police. The throng will be so dense and the risk of terrorist attacks so great, the foreign leaders will be taken on a separate route to the banks of the Yamuna river, where Mrs Gandhi’s funeral pyre is being built.

England’s cricket tour of India is still on, but the first test has been put back until the period of official mourning is over. Today, protected by a security helicopter, the team were able to practise for 2 hours in the grounds of the British High Commission. They had been in their hotel since their arrival just before the assassination. Obviously, we’ve come out for a chance to play some cricket. That’s always been the idea.
Events have overtaken somewhat.”

ITN News report from New Delhi, including Mrs Thatcher’s statement at Heathrow Airport.