TARGET KILLINGS, CLUELESS COPS

2017

Jan 31: Six persons killed in twin IED blasts at poll campaign roadshow of Cong candidate Harminder Singh Jassi, a relative of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, at Maur in Bathinda

2016

Aug 6: Punjab RSS vice-president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) shot by two unidentified men in Jalandhar

May 17: Over 20 heavily armed assailants open fire at Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrian wale’s cavalcade near Ludhiana; his follower killed

Apr 23: Two bike-borne assailants gun down Durga Prasad Gupta, leader of a Punjab Shiv Sena faction, at Khanna

Apr 4: Two bike-borne assailants kill Namdhari sect matriarch Chand Kaur at Bhaini Sahib near Ludhiana

Prime facie, the crime appears to be an offshoot of the ongoing conflict between the dera and Sikh radical elements. SURESH ARORA, DGP, Punjab, told HT