Chandigarh: The Dera Sacha Sauda follower, who was fatally shot inside his store at Kotkapura in Punjab’s Faridkot district on Thursday, was the second police protectee to be killed in Punjab in lower than every week.
The homicide of Pardeep Singh, a Dera follower who was accused of being concerned within the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case in Faridkot, has put the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) authorities beneath Bhagwant Mann within the dock.
Pardeep, who’s considered one of a number of suspects within the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015, was fatally shot by 5 gun-wielding assailants early Thursday morning. He’s the third suspect within the 2015 sacrilege case to be killed within the final six years — two different accused, Gurdev Singh and Mohinder Singh Bittu, had been assasinated in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
A policeman who was a part of the group guarding Pardeep Singh was amongst three folks wounded in Thursday’s firing, Inspector Common of Police, Faridkot vary, Pradeep Kumar Yadav advised the media throughout his inspection of the crime scene.
Quickly after the Thursday killing, Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar has claimed the assault. In a Fb put up Thursday, Brar purportedly mentioned: “For the previous seven years, three governments have modified and so they haven’t been capable of give justice to the sacrilege incidents.”
The put up additionally purportedly mentioned that Brar’s males had no intention of killing or hurting the policeman tasked with defending Pardeep Singh however added that an act of defending somebody answerable for sacrilege was “shameful”.
Goldy Brar belongs to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in Punjab and has been accused of getting been concerned within the homicide of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in Might.
Police sources mentioned they had been making an attempt to confirm the authenticity of the put up.
Pardeep Singh’s killing comes lower than every week after a ‘radicalised’ youth fatally shot Shiv Sena (Taksali) chief Sudhir Suri in a busy market in Amritsar Saturday regardless of the presence of a number of policemen on the spot.
The alleged killer, Sandeep Singh alias Sunny, was arrested on the crime scene.
The deteriorating regulation and order scenario in Punjab has put the Bhagwant Singh Mann-led AAP authorities on the defensive within the state. As criticism mounted, Mann urgently known as a gathering of senior law enforcement officials at his residence following the incident Thursday.
There’s no phrase but on what transpired on the assembly.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring mentioned there was “full anarchy” in Punjab.
It is full anarchy in Punjab. As @AAPPunjab govt failed & @ArvindKejriwal forgot to do justice in sacrilege circumstances inside 24 hours, folks have began taking regulation in their very own fingers.
A dera follower has been reportedly killed in Kotkapura. Killings haven’t any justification. pic.twitter.com/rsRjWLZ4Ri— Amarinder Singh Raja Warring (@RajaBrar_INC) November 10, 2022
Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) chief Sunil Jakhar advised the media that there was “jungle raj” in Punjab and that regulation and order was “completely lacking” within the state. “There isn’t a concern [of government] or authority left [in] Punjab,” he mentioned.
Additionally Learn: What’s ‘beadbi’ or sacrilege in Sikhism, which sees Guru Granth Sahib as residing Guru
The incident
Thursday’s incident occurred at round 7:20 am in a market in Kotkapura the place Pardeep Singh ran a dairy and grocery store. In response to the police, Pardeep Singh had simply opened his store when he was attacked by 5-6 unidentified assailants.
The assailants allegedly got here on bikes which they parked close to the store. They then shot Pardeep Singh a number of occasions and fled on their bikes. Singh died on the spot, police mentioned. Part of the capturing has been caught on a CCTV digicam close by and has since gone viral.
IG Yadav, quoted earlier, advised the media that police had gathered important clues from the spot and had been assured that they’d get a breakthrough within the case very quickly.
Who’s Pardeep Singh
Pardeep Singh was a part of the group of Dera followers allegedly concerned within the 2015 sacrilege in Bargari, Faridkot. He was amongst these arrested by a particular investigation group of the Punjab Police in 2018 and was out on bail when he was killed.
On 1 June 2015, a “saroop”, or type, of the Guru Granth Sahib — which the Sikhs take into account a residing Guru — was stolen from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot.
In October the identical yr, torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib had been discovered strewn at Bargari, a village 4 km from the spot the place the scripture was stolen, resulting in protests throughout Punjab.
A Particular Investigation Group (SIT) investigating the case has indicted the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda for the incident.
In response to police sources concerned in probe of the desecration circumstances, Pardeep Singh was answerable for having strewn the pages of the Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari.
“He additionally hid some pages in a milk jar in his store [and] was imagined to throw them at different locations later. Nonetheless, the gravity of the evolving scenario scared him and he disposed of the saved pages in a canal close to Kotkapura,” a senior police officer who was within the SIT investigating the desecration circumstances advised ThePrint.
Mohinder Pal alias Bittu, the alleged chief of the group of Dera followers who carried out the crime, was killed within the Nabha jail by two Sikh inmates in 2019.
One other suspect Gurdev Singh was murdered by three males in 2016. Three males, Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, Ashok Kumar Vohra alias Amna, and Jaswant Singh alias Kala had been sentenced to life imprisonment for that homicide in February this yr.
Regulation & order deteriorating, says opposition
The newest assassination, in addition to the Saturday capturing of the Shiv Sena (Taksali) chief, has led to the opposition events accusing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of neglecting his state and as a substitute tagging together with AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to Gujarat for campaigning for the following month’s meeting election.
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and former training minister Daljit Cheema mentioned the AAP authorities ought to both carry out or quit its declare to authority.
“As a substitute of working a state the place the federal government is concerned in pacifying numerous sections of society, the AAP authorities is, in reality, encouraging the creation of an environment of hatred and spiritual acrimony. Such killings are a results of that environment,” he claimed.
In a press assertion, BJP chief Tarun Chugh lamented that Punjab was turning into the “terror capital of the nation the place gun tradition is booming” and police had grow to be “a mute witness”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Additionally Learn: One other man killed in Punjab for ‘sacrilege bid’, hours after Golden Temple lynching