Punjab Police allege “foreign hand” in holy book sacrilege case; two key

As tensions escalated, paramilitary forces and the Punjab police tried to restore order by cordoning off sensitive areas in the affected districts of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Faridkot and Bathinda on October 21.

“This is very unfortunate that many have been beaten and abused and hundreds of Sikhs have been arrested for simply demanding action against those who desecrated Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji”, said its executive director Satnam Singh Chahal.

Over 100 pages of the Sikh holy book were found scattered on a street near a gurdwara.

Scores of people belonging to Sikh community on Sunday held a protest here in Baramulla town against the desecration of their holy book in Punjab. The government is going to ensure that no one is able to destabilize the state.

“Out of the seven reported cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, we have solved five”, said Sahota.

A Sikh panelist made the wrong kind of headlines when he began disrupting a live BBC show over the lack of media coverage of alleged violence against Sikhs in Punjab.

The police claimed they arrested two brothers, Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh of Panjgarayin village in Fardikot, for their alleged involvement in the Bargari incident. Meanwhile, administrators of Sikh gurudwaras, or temples, have tightened security in the chambers where the holy texts are kept.

The central government is seized of the matter and has sought a report from Punjab government, a senior Home Ministry official said.

The back-to-back crises that have left Punjab paralysed through most of this month presage hard times for the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-led government in the state.

The police had to resort to water cannons and barricades to stop the protesters.

Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh today rejected the “conspiracy theory” being put forward by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal over the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahab.

The man identified as Malkit Singh (34) of village Bule Nangal was taken away by three youths who are not traceable, police said.

Indian Punjab Police personnel stand guard after clashes between Sikh activists and police at Kotkapura in Faridkot on October 15, 2015.