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PANCHKULA, Haryana—In a major blow to the Sirsa cult, the CBI Court of Panchkula, headed by Justice Jagdeep Singh, has held that Gurmeet Ram Rahim is guilty of raping two of his female disciples. He has been taken into custody by police and is being transferred to the central Jail of Ambala. Sentencing will be delivered by the CBI Court on August 28, after adjudication. http://www.sikh24.com/2017/08/25/guilty-gurmeet-ram-rahim-verdict-confirmed-sentencing-in-three-days/ An eye-witnesses present in the Court told Sikh24 that Gurmeet Ram Rahim was appearing quite clearly depressed and he looked shaken when the Court delivered it’s verdict. (How the mighty fall) His followers started riots after the guilty verdict: Curfew in 10 cities of Punjab Over 30 dead and more than 200 injured. Military prescience in Punjab extended by 60 days An increase military presence of a 150 Companies requested by Punjab Two railways stations set alight CHANDIGARH, Punjab—Riotous behavior and violence by Sirsa cult disciples in Punjab and Haryana has stepped up which has caused the Punjab & Haryana High Court to issue a seizure order of the Sirsa cult’s entire property. The High Court has said that the expenditure of all the demolition caused by Sirsa cult disciples will be compensated by the selling of Ram Rahim’s property. Over 25 people have been killed so far by the violent mobs, and over a hundred people have been injured. Public property and vehicles are being targeted by the mobs. Curfew has been imposed in Bathinda, Mansa, Barnala and Ferozepur. Mobile internet has been suspended for the next few days. Meanwhile, numerous incidents of violence at petrol pumps, telephone exchanges, and public vehicles have been targeted by the violent mobs. http://www.sikh24.com/2017/08/25/breaking-punjab-update/ My comments: I have posted elsewhere that we Sikhs do not have the right to shut down the Sirsa followers' non-violent meetings. These, however, are not non-violent meetings. They are violent riots. We (and everyone) have the right to use violence to protect life and property. (Note: I'm not talking about the legal right in countries like the UK where if you injure a burglar, the police will come to arrest you, not the burglar. I'm talking about moral right.) Youtube, Facebook, and other media show Panchkula (bordering to Chandigarh) on fire. BTW: A question- Are live-fire bullets only reserved for Sikhs? The Sikhs were just sitting in an intersection in relation to Bargari beadbi incidents of Guru Granth Sahib. It's illegal to block an intersection, I get it. But it's not in and of itself a violent act. Rioting is a violent act. And you can see that the police were fleeing from the Sirsa followers, not advancing, not caning them, and certainly not firing with live bullets. (If I am mistaken, please correct me.) In any case, even if the police did live-fire, what's the equality between live-firing on a non-violent sit-in, and live-firing on a riot? Secondly, it's good that Sikhs remained generally aloof from this process. That's what I've been saying for a long time: Just let the government machinery work, why do we have to insert ourselves into everything? Because we remained aloof, the Sirsa followers are burning telephone exchanges, railway stations, buses, but, so far, not Gurdwaras. Thirdly, someone posted on Facebook a plea to our more naive brothers not to and set up a langar for the 100,000 dera premis camping in Panchkula. People laughed, but it came true when word (rumor?) came that dera premis ate in the langar at Nadha Sahib Gurdwara in Panchkula (a large historical gurdwara of Guru Gobind Singh ji's). A handful of people were upset at this idea, but the vast majority of Sikhs on Facebook said langars are open for everybody, even our enemies. In light of the violent response of the dera premis, is it a good idea to fuel the rage of the dera premis? Since, it's hard to go on a violent rampage if you're hungry for the past 3 days. Comments?