Army seizes control over old dera in Sirsa, toll mounts to 6

SIRSA: The army took control of older premises of Dera Sacha Sauda on Saturday evening as the official death toll in clashes between the security forces and the dera activists mounted to six amid curfew in the city.

Inside the city, ambulances rushed in different directions carrying the injured to various hospitals.

After an overnight standoff, the security forces, which also included the paramilitary and the state police, reached near the dera headquarters on the Begu Road on Saturday evening to seize control of the dera premises. The six deceased included a woman dera follower, Veena Devi from Fatehabad, who succumbed to bullet injuries late Friday night. The others, all dera men, were identified as Wazir Chand, Kala Singh and Vinod Kumar, all from Sirsa; Robin from Jind and Sahil from Ratia town of the adjoining Fatehabad district.

Earlier at a press conference, Maj Gen Rajpal Punia of 33 Division of the army said, “Not even a single army jawan forcefully entered the dera premises.” He said their top priority was to maintain law and order in Sirsa.

“The situation is under control right now. Heavy deployment has been made. The top priority is to maintain law and order,” he said.

4 ROUNDED UP

Several hundred dera activists fled the dera premises in the past midnight hours as a few were rounded up while running away in the wee hours, police sources said. Police sources said four people have been rounded up from outside the dera premises.

Two of them were Punjab cops, who were reportedly part of the official security provided to the dera by the Punjab government.

There were reports that several armed men were still inside the old premises of the dera, 4 km ahead of the dera headquarters, Sirsa sub-divisional magistrate (SDM ) Paramjeet Singh Chahel told HT.

“Announcements have already been made from outside the dera premises as an appeal to all those inside to surrender,” he said.

Curfew has also been imposed in Dabwali sub-division of Sirsa, from where the Punjab borders and Rajasthan border is just 10km away.”