By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa
On December 18, with tensions already high within the Sikh community of the Indian state of Punjab, the second post-sacrilege lynching took place in so many days. A man in the Kapurthala district was supposedly seen “disrespecting” the Nishan Sahib (the Sikh flag) by locals. Harkamalpreet Singh, a police officer at the scene, further explained that the man tried to steal the flag.
As officers apprehended the suspect, the angry locals demanded that he be questioned in front of them. The mob soon overpowered the police, took the suspect into a locked room, and beat him to the point of death, according to Officer Sing, when he spoke with NDTV.
Just hours earlier in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a man was beaten to death by the crowd after attempting to steal a ceremonial sword that was placed next to the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy book).
Sacrilege cases are historically not given as much attention compared to other crimes in the region. Many point that out when these lynchings occur in Punjab.
“This was an unfortunate event, ”Jarnail SinghDogra, a Gurdwara body official, said to NDTV. “Such incidents are happening repeatedly… people were witness to this incident,” he added.
Neither men have been properly identified.
