30 dead in India mob rampage
panchkula — Violent protests erupted in India on Friday, killing at least 30 people, after a court convicted a self-styled guru of raping two women, angering thousands of his supporters who said he was innocent, police and officials said.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was found guilty of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda sect in the northern town of Sirsa.
Supporters rampaged in response, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, witnesses said.
At least 30 people were killed, all but one in Panchkula town where the court returned its verdict on Singh, the chief secretary of Haryana Ram Niwas said. More than 200 people were injured in the two states.
Dozens of cars were burning in Panchkula town while a bloodied body lay in the middle of a road. About 500 army soldiers were deployed to restore order.
“The situation is coming under control,” federal home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi.
Television footage showed frantic scenes outside a hospital in Panchkula, with medical staff hurriedly transferring injured patients from ambulances on to wheelchairs and stretchers. Smoke could be seen rising in another part of town.
Singh commands a following that he claims is in the millions, many of them elderly men and women in the countryside, drawn by his social welfare programmes such as medical camps and disaster relief.
The court, which held him guilty of rape, set his sentencing for Monday when there could be more protests. He faces a minimum of seven years in prison.
Singh, who has scripted and starred in his own films, has denied the charges.
He had called on his followers through a video message to remain peaceful. —
panchkula (Haryana) — Thirty people were killed and scores injured in large-scale violence by Dera Sacha Sauda sect supporters as mobs went on a rampage here in Haryana after a CBI special court convicted sect leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The deaths took place in firing by security forces on the enraged Dera followers. The dead were all Dera followers, police officials said.
Police and hospital sources said that over 200 people were injured, some of them still battling for life. Several of the injured were referred to hospitals in Chandigarh.
Haryana Director General of Police B.S. Sandhu said on Friday evening that “Panchkula is 100 per cent safe”.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, whose government failed to prevent the mass violence, later urged people to “maintain peace and harmony not allow themselves to be misled by rumours”.
“Some anti-social elements got mixed up with the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda after the verdict by the CBI court (and) resorted to violence and disrupted peace,” said Khattar, without condemning the violence indulged in by the Dera followers in Panchkula.
“Strict action is being taken against these persons. No one is above the law and strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to take the law into his hands,” he added.
Security forces opened fire at several places as Dera supporters went around setting vehicles and buildings on fire in this town which adjoins Chandigarh.
Panchkula looked like a war zone within hours after the verdict. Journalists and security personnel came under targeted attack. Some journalists fled for their lives and took shelter in nearby homes.
More than 200 people, including security personnel and media persons, were injured in the mayhem. Some bodies, bleeding and with bullet wounds, lay on the roads, witnesses said.
Panchkula town, where curfew was imposed after violence started, was virtually under siege by the rampaging Dera followers who had a free run as they vastly outnumbered the police and security personnel.
Reports said that over 100 vehicles were set on fire by the rampaging mobs. Several government and private buildings were also damaged and some torched. Residents reported seeing plumes of black smoke rising into the sky at several places.
People complained that the authorities posted Army units and para-military forces only to secure some locations, including residential areas of government officers and ministers, while the rest of the town was left at the mercy of the violent Dera followers.
The Dera followers, in thousands, had gathered in Panchkula from various areas of Punjab and Haryana ahead of Friday’s court verdict, in brazen violation of orders banning the assembly of more than four people.
Once the CBI court held Ram Rahim Singh guilty of rape and sexual molestation of two female devotees, the violence began in no time. —
Some anti-social elements got mixed up with the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda after the verdict by the CBI court (and) resorted to violence and disrupted peace
Manohar Lal Khattar,