Confrontation outside church; youths hurt, vehicles vandalised

Amritsar, May 21

Tension gripped the Rajewal village after some miscreants clad in the Nihang attire allegedly created nuisance outside a church during a prayer on Sunday. The suspects were allegedly stopping other Sikhs from entering the church. Their actions earned the ire of the local Christian community.

A verbal spat soon ensued between the Nihang Sikhs and members of the Christian community as the two groups ended up pelting stones at each other. Unindentified suspects vandalised several vehicles in the area as they tried to flee the spot.

Up in arms over the conduct of the men who looked like Nihang Sikhs, Christians later held a dharna on the Jandiala Guru-Tarn Taran road, blocking the traffic for two hours. The protesters threatened to intensify the stir in case of inaction on part of the police. Some senior police officials, led by Amritsar (rural) SSP Satinder Singh and SP Jugraj Singh, soon reached the spot and pacified the agitators.

Devotees of the church told Subhash Thoba, a member of the Minority Commission (Punjab), that around 25 persons sporting the Nihang attire had gathered outside the church and started creating nuisance. The miscreants allegedly also showed disrespect to the holy Bible. They also attacked some Christian devotees, leaving a couple of them injured. He said the commission would be writing to CM Bhagwant Mann in this regard.

Amritsar (Rural) SSP Satinder Singh has described the incident as “unfortunate”. He stated that stringent action would be taken against the miscreants.