CHANDIGARH: A 22-year-old youth was lynched by Nihangs near the golden temple on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday after an argument over smoking turned ugly, police said.
The Nihangs had objected to the youth smoking leading to a quarrel and eventually the murder.
Sources said that a youth identified as Harmanjit Singh of Chatiwind village in Taran Taran district was smoking outside a hotel some eight hundred meters away from the Golden Temple here on Wednesday night when an argument broke out between him and two Nihang Sikhs besides two others. It led to a scuffle and Singh was allegedly assaulted with a sharp-edged weapon killing him on the spot.
After the attack, the youth was lying there the entire night and it was only in the early morning that he was taken to the hospital by police. However, he succumbed to the injuries.
Police found that in his struggle to save himself from the assailants the youth had snatched the kirpan of one of the Nihangs.
An onlooker, Ramandeep Singh, working as a waiter in a nearby hotel had also joined the Nihangs and attacked the youth. While the two Nihangs managed to flee the place, Ramandeep has been arrested. The killing has been captured on a CCTV camera installed outside a hotel. The police have obtained the footage which helped them to identify the accused.
A case has been registered based on a complaint lodged by the victim's father Balwinder Singh. In his statement to the police, he said his younger son Harmanjit got a call from someone on Wednesday night, and he informed them that he is going to the golden temple to pay obeisance. He said he will be back in the morning. But he failed to return. Hence, he with his other son went to the golden temple hoping to find him there. But to their horror, they found Harmanjit's motorcycle near a hotel and his body nearby. People subsequently informed them that two persons (Nihangs) Tarundeep Singh and Charanjit Singh killed his son along with Ramandeep Singh.
Amritsar Police Commissioner Arun Pal Singh said that the injured Harmanjit was lying on the road throughout the night and he died of excessive bleeding.
"We have registered a case in this regard. We have identified the three accused and arrested one of them,’’ he said.
This is reported to be the third such incident in the last one week. On Sunday, a clash took place between Nihangs and followers of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas after the Nihang of Tarna Dal Baba Bakala (Baba Pala Singh) group allegedly tried to enter the Dera premises to graze their cattle. Both sides reportedly pelted stones, used swords, and fired shots at each other during the clash in which twelve people have been injured, including police personnel.
Earlier a group of four masked people entered the three-storyed church in Thakarpur village of Patti assembly constituency of Tarn Taran district around 12.30 AM and forcefully held the security guard captive at gunpoint. Then they climbed to the top floor of the church and allegedly broke the statues of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ and took away their heads. They also set a car parked on the church premises on fire before they left.