Torn pages of ‘bir’ found in canal

Jalandhar : Tension gripped the city after torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found floating in a canal near Sher Singh Colony on the Jalandhar-Kala Sanghian road this morning.The incident came to light when a local resident, Shamsher Singh, spotted the torn pages and raised the alarm. A number of Sikh youths gathered at the spot and jumped into the canal to retrieve the pages.
Sources said around 200 pages of the holy book were recovered. They said the youths also found a page from the Hindu holy book, Gita. Demanding the arrest of the miscreants for hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community, members of the Sikh Talmel Committee sat on a dharna at Kapurthala Chowk, resulting in traffic chaos. Congress leader Sushil Rinku and BJP leader Robin Sampla too joined the protest. Senior police officers, including AS Power, ADCP, HS Mander, ADCP, RPS Sandhu, ADCP and SHOs of various police stations, reached the spot. The police have begun the investigations and are looking for CCTV footage to identify the miscreants. The protesters have put up tents at the Kapurthala Chowk and set up community kitchen to serve langar. The dharna by Sikh organisations started at 11 am and was still on till the filing of this report. Power said a case against unknown persons had been registered and the police were trying to identify the culprits. Kanwarpal Singh of the Dal Khalsa said a series of sacrilege incidents were reported in September last year and now it started again. He alleged that the culprits were not being caught due to the failure of the government.

No will to act: Ghuggi
Had the government been serious in solving earlier cases, nobody would have dared to commit such a condemnable act again. — Gurpreet Ghuggi, AAP state convener

Govt’s failure: Capt
The aim is to disturb peace in the state. The Badal-led government had failed to act in earlier such cases. Once the culprits are allowed to go scot-free, they get emboldened to commit more such acts. — Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC chief