Man dead in group clash over shrine use, 1 held

AMRITSAR: Police here on Monday arrested one of the key accused in the bloody clash between two groups of the Gujjar community over the use of a shrine that left one dead and three injured in Bagga village in Amritsar.

The incident happened at around 2 pm on Sunday. A video clip of the clash between the two groups, the ethnic agricultural and pastoral community, has also gone viral on social media. In the purported video clip, several Gujjars, including women, are seen scrambling, in the presence of a police party.

Police said the arrested person, identified as Laldin of Bhullar village, was one of the key accused who attacked the victim with sharp-edged weapons.

Superintendent of police (SP-investigation) Manoj Takhur said both the groups had been at loggerheads over the use of a religious shrine for the past few months.

“One of the groups was stopping the other from bringing people from outside the village to the shrine alleging that the persons from outside the village had been eve-teasing their women. A clash took place between both the groups a few months ago and a case was registered in this regard, but a compromise was made between them after some time,” Takhur said.

He said that the two groups engaged in a quarrel over the same issue again.

“People of both the groups pelted stones at each other. Some of the accused brought sharp-edged weapons and attacked each other,” he said, adding that the body of the deceased has been handed over to his family members after postmortem.

Police have booked fifteen people, including ten unidentified and the one arrested, under Sections 302 (murder), 452 (house-trespass), 323 (causing hurt), 379-B (theft by force), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Mattewal police station on the complaint of one Roshandin of Mattewal village, who is the brother of the deceased, Lal Hussain.

“On Sunday, I visited my brother Lal Hussain. In the meantime, the accused came in two cars and two tractor-trailers. All the accused were laden with sharp-edged weapons. As soon as they arrived, they started attacking my brother and his other family members. My brother died on the spot, while three of his family members got injured. Some of the accused also stole away my 60,000 rupees,” Roshandin said in the FIR.

BOTH GROUPS FROM GUJJAR COMMUNITY WERE AT LOGGERHEADS FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS, SAY COPS