CHANDIGARH: In a surgery lasting over seven hours, doctors at the Chandigarh’s PGIMER reattached a 50-year-old ASI’s hand chopped off in an attack by a group of Nihangs in Punjab’s Patiala on Sunday, officials said.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Harjeet Singh’s hand was cut with a sword while three other Punjab policemen and a mandi official sustained injuries when the Nihangs attacked them after being asked to show curfew passes at a vegetable market in Patiala district.
The Punjab Police has arrested 11 people, including a woman, in connection with the attack which took place at 6.15 am in Sanaur town.
The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) said their Director Dr Jagat Ram had received a call regarding it from Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta at 7.45 am after which the emergency team at the trauma centre there was alerted.
According to the premier institute, Prof Ramesh Sharma, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery, was given the task of the surgery.
“The replantation started around 10 am,” PGIMER said, adding that the procedure took about seven and a half hours.
The accused were nabbed after the Patiala Police Party, led by Patiala Range IGP Jatinder Aulakh and Senior Superintendent of Police of Patiala Mandeep Sidhu along with a team of the Special Operations Group (SOG), led by Additional DGP Rakesh Chandra, moved into the Nihang Dera Complex, which also houses Khichdi Sahib Gurudwara.
The Nihangs attacked the police and tried to set off blasts using LPG cylinders to cause injuries to the police party.
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said that Baba Balwinder Singh the head of the dera was the main perpetrator of the attack.
He said a huge cache of arms, such as barchhe and kirpans, and used cartridges were seized from the accused, in addition to two petrol bombs, LPG cylinders, five bags of poppy husk mixed with sulpha, drugs and Rs 39 lakh in cash. Some bottles with chemical substances were also found inside the premises.
Three separate cases have been registered against the accused, including an attempt to murder has been registered against the accused.
Amarinder’s warning
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has strongly condemned the attack and warned that anyone violating the curfew, imposed in the state to check the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, would be strictly dealt with.