Thousands of Sikhs, many armed, have been staging protests, against a Hindu sect. On Thursday, tension gripped several towns of Punjab and there were clashes in Patiala and New Delhi between Dera Sacha Sauda followers and Sikhs protesting an advertisement which showed the sect head in the attire of Guru Gobind Singh.
The central government has sent two battalions of the Rapid Action Force, a paramilitary force comprising commandoes, to Sirsa. The Punjab and Haryana governments have been asked by the federal government to ensure that law and order is maintained. Punjab’s Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, has asked the federal government to despatch 50 companies of paramilitary forces to ensure peace.
Tension prevailed particularly in Bathinda and adjoining districts of Punjab after nearly 40,000 Sikhs surrounded the biggest campus of the sect in Punjab at Salabatpura, 30 km from Bathinda. Nearly 50,000 sect followers, who live inside this campus with their families in the 150-acre complex, refused to leave the place despite appeals from the police and administration.
Late yester-night, one person was reported killed and 20 others injured when police was forced to fire at a mob that was attacking a sect campus in Sunam town of Sangroor district, 180 km from state capital Chandigarh.
While Patiala witnessed fierce street clashes, Sikh groups armed with swords forcibly closed shops and educational institutions in Amritsar. Youths smashed signboards and furniture of shops that did not close down. The situation was also tense in Phagwara, Batala, Bathinda and Moga as Dera supporters and Sikh groups like the Damdami Taksal, SGPC and SAD staged protests.
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