Gurdaspur Violence: Sikh Clergy Faces Villagers’ Ire

[Azaad]

An uneasy calm prevailed in the town today. The curfew, clamped yesterday following communal clashes, continued to be in force for the second day. The state government has formed a special investigating team (SIT) to look into the sequence of events leading to the curfew.

The team comprises DIG (Border Range) Ram Singh, Tarn Taran SSP Manminder Singh and SP (Headquarters) Jaspal Singh. The cremation of 18-year-old Jaspal Singh, killed in the police firing yesterday, will be held at his native village Chour Sidhwan tomorrow.

Jaspal Singh was a BTech (Electronics) student of the local Beant College of Engineering and Technology. Shocked students and staff of the college held a meeting this morning to express grief over his death. Principal Dyal Chand termed the killing as a “dastardly act”.

Jaspal’s body was taken to his village amid tight security after a post-mortem was conducted by doctors of the Civil Hospital here.

The situation in the city remained tense with paramilitary forces keeping a strict vigil to prevent any untoward incident following Intelligence reports that the situation could take a turn for the worse.

Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh, Damdami Taksal head Baba Harnam Singh Dhumma, former Jathedar of Akal Takht Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode and Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh had to face the ire of nearly 2,500 villagers when they visited Jaspal’s village this morning. The angry residents blamed the clergy for the sorry state of affairs.

The police accompanied the team till the village outskirts but no further. There were reports that the police could be targeted by the angry village residents.

Dera Baba Nanak legislator and president of the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to hold an all-party meeting to discus the situation in the town.

He also asked the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to Ranjit Singh who was injured in the violence yesterday. The latter is recuperating at the Civil Hospital, Amritsar.

Gurdaspur Member of Parliament Partap Bajwa claimed that the law and order situation in the state was deteriorating.

[Ek0sikh]

from the clip of that incident, most of the singhs had kirpans in their hands, they were obviously less than PP who were armed.

someone fired but why did everyone started running? most PPs have only sticks in their hands.

someone should have done "sawa lakh se ek laraun" and used their sri sahibs.they were in the battlefield.