Dera follower shot dead in Faridkot

was an accused in the 2015 sacrilege cases, was shot dead on Thursday by five unidentified assailants in Punjab’s Faridkot district, police said. According to the police, Pardeep Singh, a follower of Haryana’s Sirsa-based Dera, was shot at his dairy shop located on Hari Nau Road in Kotkapura in Faridkot at around 7am. His security guard Hakam Singh and another shopkeeper Amar Singh also sustained bullet injuries in the incident. “We are trying to identify the five assailants. We have strong leads on the accused,” said Faridkot senior superintendent of police Rajpal Singh. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed nearby. Pradeep Singh is the seventh Dera follower to have been killed since the sacrilege incidents of 2015 in Faridkot district.