Religion continues to kill: rival sikh groups clash in Vienna and then the spillover in Punjab

The Times of India, 25 May 2009, 0145 hrs IST

Protests in Jalandhar over Vienna gurdwara clash

by I P Singh, TNN

JALANDHAR/PHAGWARA: Curfew was clamped in Jalandhar city on Sunday night and Army alerted as tension gripped Doaba region after violence flared
up and protesters resorted to arson within hours of attack on the head of Dera Sachkhand Ballan in a temple shootout in the Austrian capital of Vienna, where about 30 people were wounded when rival Sikh factions clashed inside the premises. ( Watch )

Six buses were damaged in stone-pelting in Phagwara and Adampur, near here, and two trucks and a bank ATM torched in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. Police said curfew was clamped in Jalandhar town as a precautionary measure.

Tension gripped Jalandhar when followers of Dera Sachkhand and various Dalit bodies took to the streets after the news of firing on Sant Niranjan Dass, the Dera head, and his second in command Sant Ramanand, spread. The Dera was established by Sant Sarwan Dass and Sant Niranjan Dass is the current incumbent (Gadi Nasheen).

As thousands of Majhabi Sikhs spilled on Nakodar road and even pelted stones on police, the situation started worsening after 7.30pm.

National highways were blocked in Jalandhar, Phagwara, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur and at other places of Doaba region as mobs set tyres on fire. With angry protesters roaming the highways, police resorted to diverting vehicles through alternate countryside routes. A Jalandhar-bound passenger from Chandigarh, who was stranded midway, said, "Our bus was stopped near Behram complex on Banga-Phagwara road and people had to take shelter just about anywhere. I was lucky to know someone in the vicinity."

Former Jalandhar municipal corporation mayor Surinder Mahey, who is also a Dera follower and was in touch with his contacts abroad, said the sect leaders were holding a function when armed assailants pumped bullets into them.

"Reports suggest that Guru Ravidas took a gunshot in his thigh while Ramanand was hit in abdomen," he added.

According to agency reports from Austria, about 30 people were wounded, nine of them seriously, in a clash inside a Sikh temple. Fighting broke out around 1.30 pm, when a group opposed to a sermon by Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha whipped out knives and a gun inside the premises.

"One drew a firearm, the others knives. The six people were overpowered by members of the community and injured," a spokesperson of the Austrian police department said. Cops recovered three spent cartridges inside the temple, where 200 people had gathered for the service.

Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal appealed to all Punjabis to maintain calm. Meanwhile, security was stepped up around religious institutions in Chandigarh.
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ibnlive.com
May 25, 2009

RIVAL SIKH SECTS CLASH

Vienna attack: Sikh guru killed, tension in Punjab

CNN-IBN

May 25, 2009 at 08:46

HIGH ALERT: Policemen stand in front of a gurudwara in which a shooting took place in Vienna.


New Delhi: An Indian Sikh Guru has become the first casualty of the bloody clashes between two Sikh sects in Vienna, Austria.

Austrian police say two groups of Sikh worshippers clashed with knives and a handgun in the gurudwara on Sunday killing an Indian Sikh guru and injuring 30 others, nine of them seriously.

The guru who died from gunshot wounds has been identified as 56-year-old Sant Ram Nand. Sant Ram Nand underwent emergency surgery but died during on Sunday night.

He was accompanying another Guru Sant Niranjan Das who was the preacher at the ceremony in the gurudwara. The two were giving a sermon to a gathering that calls itself the Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha.

Violence erupted when clashes broke out after six intruders attacked the gathering with knives and guns. All the assailants belonged to a rival Sikh sect and were objecting to the sermon.

Police have arrested six suspects so far.

"According to our investigation so far six persons did not agree with the ceremony during a religious service of the Sikhs. They stood up, pulled their guns and attacked the people inside the temple and the priest. They injured people and were badly injured themselves by the gathering. That is what the investigation has shown so far. We cannot tell if there is a political motivation or if there had been a dispute between marginal groups," said spokesman for Vienna Police Michael Takacs.

Another eyewitness Rikki said that the assailants fired at the gathering and also stabbed some people.

"I heard sixteen shots, somebody held him, he had a knife and there were several people," said Rikki.

When asked if he held the guru, Rikki replied, "No, I didn't, a colleague of mine did, and then we both held him. I saw that he was hurt, that was all I saw. Inside, many people were hurt, my uncle, too. He was shot."

The other injured guru, Sant Nirnajan Das, is so far in stable condition

CNN-IBN's Political Editor for Europe, Sanjay Suri reports that there is clam in Vienna.

"It's all quiet for now after those incidents in Vienna. The situation is under control. The people behind this (attack) have been arrested. Leaders of both groups are appealing for peace. What happened was the work of a few and though there have been problems between the two communities there's no such ill-will of the kind. The people of Ravidass community have asked for security. There are many Ravidass followers in many parts of Europe," reports Suri.

Meanwhile, the violence in Vienna has had its repercussions in Punjab too.

There is tension in parts of Punjab and Chandigarh is now on high alert. Curfew continues to be clamped in Jalandhar where protestors damaged police vans and public buses late on Sunday night. Six companies of paramilitary forces and five columns of Army have been deployed.

Angry mobs allegedly blocked a bypass road that connects Phagwara to Jalandhar and Chandigarh. Violence also spilled out on national highways blocking roads to Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and at other places in the Doaba region where mobs also set tyres on fire.

In Nakodar, too, thousands came out on streets and pelted stones on the police.

(With inputs from Jyoti Kamal)