Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

2 Dera Sacha Sauda followers shot dead in Khanna village

MURDEROUS RIVALRY Victims, a fatherson duo, were organisers at sect’s congregati­on centre

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LUDHIANA/CHANDIGARH: Two gunmen on a motorbike killed a father-son duo, local organisers for the Dera Sacha Sauda, at a congregati­on centre of the Sirsa head quartered sect at Jagera village near Malaudh, 40 km from Khanna in Ludhiana district, on Saturday. “Prime facie, the crime appears to be an offshoot of the ongoing conflict between the dera and Sikh radical elements,” Punjab director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora told Hindustan Times.

Police said Satpal Kumar, 65, and his son Ramesh, 35, who belonged to the nearby town of Ahmadgarh, were apparently shot around 7pm, when they were in a canteen that they ran at the ‘naam charcha ghar’. Khanna superinten­dent of police Satnam Singh told a news agency that they died on the spot. At least four cartridges of .32-bore revolver were found from the spot. “We are looking at CCTV footage from around the crime scene to trace the accused,” the SP said. The DGP, too, told HT that the police were looking for witnesses and examining security camera footage.

However, sub-inspector Ravinder Kumar, station house officer at Malaudh, said it could be a matter of personal rivalry “because the killers targeted only Satpal and his son, and did not hurt other dera followers sitting there”.

Going by top sources, though, the fatal attack is being seen as a chilling reminder of mounting tension between dera followers and sections of Sikhs that has surfaced often since 2007, when the dera head, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, allegedly dressed up as Guru Gobind Singh. There were violent clashes then, and the Akal Takht even issued an edict that Sikhs must boycott the dera head over his blasphemou­s act.

Also, it is the first such incident after the February 4 Punjab assembly polls in which the dera had extended open support to the incumbent alliance of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), infuriatin­g Sikh hardliners over the violation of the Takht edict by the SAD. Akali leaders had even promised to arrange the dera head’s congregati­ons in Punjab after a gap of almost 10 years since his 2007 act.

On January 31, the dera head’s relative Harminder Singh Jassi, a Congress candidate, escaped death when twin blasts killed six people his campaign programme at Maur in Bathinda district.

Hours before the Khanna shooting, Sikh radicals disrupted a congregati­on of the dera at Makhu town in Zira sub-division of Ferozepur district. A week before that, also in Makhu, police had registered a case against 25 radicals for a similar disruption.

 ?? PHOTO: BABUSHAHI.COM ?? Bodies of victims in the canteen at the Dera Sacha Sauda centre at Jagera village, 40km from Khanna, on Saturday.
PHOTO: BABUSHAHI.COM Bodies of victims in the canteen at the Dera Sacha Sauda centre at Jagera village, 40km from Khanna, on Saturday.

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