NEW DELHI, June 11— Most of the 500 to 600 Sikh troops who deserted in northeastern India on Sunday were arrested today at three places, including one where a gun battle left 26 Sikh extremists dead, Indian news agencies and officials reported tonight.
At the same time, more defections and attempted defections were reported in the north and in the west, near Bombay.
The Press Trust of India reported 574 arrests at points between Ramgarh and New Delhi, and an army spokesman said that if the report was accurate ''that should take care of all the deserters.'' He said he could not confirm the report.
Angered by Temple Assault
The Sikh soldiers deserted Sunday at Ramgarh in Bihar State in anger at the Indian Army's assault last Tuesday and Wednesday on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, the holiest site of the Sikh religion. The soldiers joined other Sikhs in heading across India for Amritsar.
(The death toll in the attack on the Golden Temple could be as high as 2,000, The Associated Press reported, because many people are unaccounted for and more bodies are being pulled from the lake that surrounds the central shrine.)
The battle today, which lasted several hours, was near Jaunpur, 350 miles southeast of here in Uttar Pradesh State, and 355 people were arrested there.
77 Reported to Surrender
Earlier, officials of Uttar Pradesh State said 126 people, including soldiers and some civilians, were arrested near Allahabad City, 77 deserters were reported to have given themselves up in Bihar and 16 were arrested near Benares, the Hindu holy city, 35 miles southeast of Jaunpur.
The mutineers at Ramgarh, 525 miles southeast of here, killed Brig. R. S. Puri of the Sikh Regiment Center there and fled with their arms in army trucks, private buses and cars, promising to travel to Amritsar.
The army spokesman, Brig. K. L. Juneja, said the Sikhs were incited to desert by civilian Sikhs who organized protest marches and meetings in Ramgarh. People with close contacts among security officials said most of the deserters were young and recent recruits.
These other developments on Sikh desertions were also reported:
- At least 43 Sikhs who deserted at Poona near Bombay in western India on Sunday were captured after a brief gun battle today near Thana on their way to Punjab. They were said to have shot and killed three people, including two soldiers.
- North of Bombay, about 70 Sikhs, most of them thought to be deserters, crossed from Maharashtra State into Gujarat State in three trucks, the Press Trust of India reported. Troops in Gujarat were placed on alert.
- At Siliguri, near the border with Nepal in northern West Bengal State, attempts by Sikhs to desert were reported, but officials in the area said the soldiers had been ''persuaded to return to the barracks.'' The number of troops involved was not known.
'They're on the Run'
In an effort to cut off food and fuel to the mutineers and their followers, the Uttar Pradesh government shut gasoline stations, hotels and restaurants and stopped rail and road traffic in the eastern part of the state.
''They are no longer a single cohesive group, as when they started at Ramgarh,'' Brigadier Juneja said. ''They've split up, they're uncoordinated. They're on the run.'' He said some were traveling in trains.
A senior army officer said army troops and policemen had been placed on alert on New Delhi's borders to stop any rebels who tried to enter the city. Trains headed for the Indian capital from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh were being closely checked.
Brigadier Juneja denied reports about Sikhs deserting at Sri Ganganagar in the northewestern state of Rajasthan. He said that fewer than 100 men, all of whom he said were Sikh terrorists, were involved in the incident, which took place last Friday. Flight to Pakistan Reported
He said intelligence reports indicated that the terrorists had fled into Pakistan when the army crackdown in the Punjab began June 2. In Pakistan, they put on Indian Army uniforms, he said, entered the Sri Ganganagar area and then tried to enter Punjab but ''were arrested at the border.''
But a military source familiar with Punjab reaffirmed that at least 100 soldiers had defected at Sri Ganganagar, of whom 50 escaped. The rest were arrested, he said. (The Associated Press said 10 of the Sikh soldiers from Sri Ganganagar were killed.)
Toll May Reach 2,000
AMRITSAR, India, June 11 (AP) - The death toll in the army attack on the Golden Temple complex could be as high as 2,000 because many people are unaccounted for and more bodies are being pulled from the holy lake surrounding the central shrine, officials say.
The authorities have already cremated the bodies of 825 Sikh militants killed in the assault on the sprawling 17th-century temple complex, according to the police and civilian officials.
A garbage truck carrying 38 bodies was seen in Amritsar on Sunday night and the stench of death still hung over the city today.
Officially, the army has reported that as many as 400 Sikh extremists died.
Maj. Gen. R. K. Gaur told reporters today in the Punjab capital of Chandigarh that 90 soldiers had been killed in army operations at the Golden Temple.
But sources here said the conservative estimate is at least 1,000 deaths, including 200 troops. And they said the figure could reach 2,000 once the tally is complete.
Most of the people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday when about 3,000 troops backed by tanks and rockets attacked the fortified compound to flush out Sikh extremists blamed for more than 400 murders this year.
Many Soldiers Lose Limbs
Waves of commandos, including frogmen assigned to dive in the temple lake, were sent into the compound first but all were killed, military and police sources said. It took three charges before the troops entered the temple grounds, they said.
Many surviving troops have had limbs amputated because they were wounded by mines and by militants firing from manholes, they said.
More paramilitary troops are being deployed in Amritsar, where the situation remains tense. Some explosions and gunfire were heard from the temple complex this morning.
At least seven people have died of starvation in Amritsar, which has been under curfew since June 3, the sources said. Many more are sick from drinking contaminated water.
Water and power to the central area were still cut off today.
A roll of film taken by an Associated Press reporter in Amritsar was confiscated today by army officials.
In the military's continuing operation to flush out Sikh terrorists and their arms caches, 15 suspected extremists have been killed since Sunday night in Faridkot and Ferozepur, six in Bhatinda and three in Amritsar district, the officials said.
Sikh extremists have killed 32 Hindus in six separate attacks across the state since Saturday, they said.
At least six armored personnel carriers and two tanks were spotted today on the highway from Amritsar to Jullundur city in central Punjab. In Jullundur, about 2,500 Sikhs demonstrated against the army's invasion of the Golden Temple.
2 Sikhs Quit Parliament
NEW DELHI, June 11 (AP) - Two Sikh members of Parliament from Prime Minister Gandhi's Congress Party have resigned in protest of the storming of the Golden Temple.
They are Amrinder Singh and Devinder Singh Garcha, both members of the lower house.
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