A day after, 20 booked for clash over Muktsar gurdwara control

No arrest so far; docs take 9 hours to conduct autopsy, remove bullets from bodies

BATHINDA: The police have booked as many as 20 people, including Baba Makhan Singh, the main accused, under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) for Wednesday’s clash between two groups of Nihangs over the control of a gurdwara at Mallan village in Muktsar district. Three people were killed and six others injured in the clash.

The case has been registered at the Kot Bhai police station. However, no arrest has been made so far.

The two groups exchanged at least 70 gunshots and torched two vehicles during the clash that lasted for around 45 minutes at Gurdwara Sri Ramsar Sahib.

The clash took place when Makhan Singh, belonging to a faction, headed by Joginder Singh, reached the gurdwara along with his supporters to wrest its control on Wednesday morning.

Makhan Singh, who had been overseeing the gurdwara for the past several years, was allegedly threatened and thrown out of the premises by Naib Singh and his aides the previous night. The gurdwara owns six acres of land in Mallan and three acres in Rammania village.

As Makhan Singh’s group, wielding arms and sharp-edged weapons, attacked the rival group around 10am, Naib Singh and his men tried to take shelter inside the gurdwara premises, but three of them were killed, while six others suffered multiple bullet injuries.

The intensity of firing between the groups could be gauged from the fact that it took around nine hours for the doctors to conduct postmortem and remove bullets from bodies of Naib Singh, 65, his grandson Ranjit Singh, 27, and Amritpal Singh, 37.

“Postmortem of bodies started at 8am and it finished around 6pm as, according to doctors, there were multiple bullets and pellet marks on bodies of the deceased,” said Sukhdev Singh, investigation officer.