A man was killed in Punjab’s Amritsar city on Saturday after he allegedly attempted to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple, The Tribune reported. The man was killed by enraged staff of the Golden Temple, according to The Times of India.
The president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the apex body for the management of gurdwaras, and the police confirmed that the person was killed.
Around 5.45 pm on Saturday, the man entered the shrine by jumping over a metal grill and tried to pick up a kirpan (ceremonial sword) kept in front of the Sikh holy text Guru Granth Sahib, according to the Hindustan Times.
“The man, about 20 to 25 years of age who had a yellow cloth tied on his head jumped the fence...the people inside held him and escorted him out to the corridor where there was a violent altercation and he died,” said Parminder Singh Bhandal, the deputy commissioner of police in Amritsar, NDTV reported.
Bhandal added that the police will check all the CCTV cameras to investigate where the man came from.
Visuals shared by social media users showed a body covered in a piece of cloth lying inside the premises of the Golden Temple. This was reportedly the second attempt of alleged sacrilege in four days at the Golden Temple.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi condemned the incident on Twitter and said he has directed directed the police to “thoroughly probe into entire matter to zero in on the underlying motive”.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal expressed “shock and disbelief” at the incident. He also alleged a deep-rooted conspiracy, saying it was impossible to believe that this could be the act of just one person.
“Only the other day, there was a shocking incident of gutka packets being thrown in the holy lake [around the Golden Temple],” the former Punjab chief minister added. “But no one did anything nor took any steps to prevent such a heinous crime from happening. What are the intelligence agencies doing?”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been actively campaigning in Punjab ahead of the elections, said in a tweet, “People are in shock. This could be a very big conspiracy. The most strict punishment should be meted out to the culprits.”
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