Chandigarh: Tension prevailed in Haryana’s Kurukshetra town yesterday as leaders and supporters of the newly-constituted Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) laid siege to a big gurdwara.
Heavy police deployment was seen near Gurdwara Chatti Patshahi as leaders of the HSGPC and their supporters marched towards the shrine, one of the biggest in the state, in a bid to take control of it. They broke two police barriers put in their route.
Members of a task force and other volunteers of the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which still controls Sikh shrines in Haryana, gathered inside the shrine premises, ready to resist any attempt to forcibly take it over. Many people from both sides were carrying weapons like swords, spears and sticks.
Police said they were trying to pacify the HSGPC and it supporters and stop them from turning the situation into a violent one.
The HSGPC had on Friday asked the SGPC to hand over records of gurdwaras in Haryana to it. The SGPC had categorically refused to do so.
Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the SGPC are locked in a row with the Haryana government over the creation of the HSGPC. They have strongly opposed the creation of HSGPC for administration of Sikh shrines in Haryana.
On June 11, the Haryana assembly passed a bill under which a committee would be set up to manage gurdwaras in Haryana. The SGPC, the mini-parliament of Sikh religious affairs, loses control over gurdwaras in Haryana under the new law.
IANS
