CHANDIGARH: Several people were injured when rival Sikh groups brandishing swords clashed with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) task force at the entrance plaza of the Golden Temple Complex in Amritsar on Thursday.
The incident happened when the SGPC task force tried to stop Master Johar Singh, president of Committee of Chhota Ghallughara Gurdwara at Qadian in Gurdaspur, from entering the Golden Temple.
He had come to appear before the ‘parallel jathedars’, who had summoned him. They are called parallel jathedars as they are not recognized by the Akal Takht (a Sikh religious body). Only the five jathedars (high priests) appointed by the Takhat are recognized
The clash started after the supporters of jathedars started a verbal duel with the SGPC task force. The verbal duel turned into a clash when jathedars tried to enter golden temple complex and were stopped by the members of the task force. Soon, members of both sides took out swords. The police intervened to bring the situation under control.
One of the ‘parallel jathedar’ Dhyan Singh Mand alleged that the whole episode was due to the inaction of the SGPC and it’s president Kirpal Singh Badungar. He also demanded that they be booked for attempt to murder.
However, the SGPC secretary Roop Singh demanded that a case be registered against the supporters of parallel jathedars as they started the fight in which two members of the task force and its additional secretary Vijay Singh were injured.
Meanwhile, SGPC president Kirgh Badungar rejected both the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission set up by present the Congress government as well as the Zora Singh Commission set up by the previous Badal government to probe into sacrilege cases at Golden Temple.