Corona Warriors Under Attack

Cops assaulted for lockdown enforcement in Patiala, docs reattach ASI’s chopped off hand

- Manjeet Sehgal

The Patiala police on Sunday arrested 11 people in connection with the horrendous attack on a police party at the vegetable market in the city this morning, in which an ASI’s hand was cut off by a group of Nihang Sikhs.

The accused, including a woman, were nabbed after the Patiala Police party, led by IG Patiala Range Jatinder Aulakh and Patiala SSP Mandeep Sidhu, were fired upon from inside the Nihang Dera complex which also houses Khichdi Sahib Gurdwara. The operation followed by several hours of stand-off and many rounds of appeals and negotiations by SSP Sidhu with Dera head Baba Balwinder Singh to surrender with their weapons and swords but the Nihangs refused to do so. One Nihang, Nirbhav Singh, suffered an injury in the incident and was immediately shifted to Patiala hospital.

The accused crashed through the barricades and attacked the police personnel who inquired about their curfew passes, said DGP Dinkar Gupta, adding that Baba Balwinder Singh, the Nihang head, was the main perpetrator of the attack on the police party at the Patiala Sabzi Mandi this morning. He came to the market with four other persons in a Tata Zenon vehicle.

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh strongly condemned the attack and warned that anyone violating the curfew, imposed in the state since March 23 to check the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, would be strictly dealt with. “The police personnel were risking their lives in spite of the pandemic to save the people of Punjab and any attack on them would not be tolerated,” he warned. The CM also directed the DGP to come down heavily on those trying to disturb the law and order in the state at this difficult time.