Clashes in Indian Punjab leave 2 dead, 75 injured

Two people were killed and at least 75 were injured after clashes broke out in Punjab’s Faridkot, Moga and Sangrur districts, over an alleged incident of sacrilege. Protesters and police clashed in Behbal Kalan village where activists of various Sikh organisations, including radicals, had set up a blockade.

At least 6,000 Sikh activists staged a protest demanding action against those responsible for the alleged sacrilege. Some of them resorted to stone pelting and were told to disperse, police said. The situation became so tense that police was forced to use water cannons to disperse the crowd. Heavy police presence was deployed to maintain law and order. Bathinda Zone IGP J K Jain was among the 75 people injured in the clashes, four of them seriously. There were 15 policemen among the injured, officials said.

According to officials, earlier, a holy book was stolen from a religious place located on Bathinda-Kotkapura road.

Condemning the incident, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said in a statement on Tuesday that nobody would be allowed to disturb the hard earned peace and communal harmony of the state.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2015.