Nihangs cut off ASI's hand in attack on cop in Punjab

Chandigarh: Seven people, including five Nihang Sikhs, were arrested from a gurdwara in Punjab on Sunday, hours after an attack on a police team in Patiala in which an assistant sub inspector's hand was chopped off, police said.

The seven people included five who were allegedly part of the attack outside a wholesale vegetable market in Patiala early on Sunday morning, officials said.

With a lockdown in place, barricades were put up outside the market and police personnel were regulating entry by asking for curfew passes.

A group of four-five 'Nihangs' (a sect of Sikhis whose members are armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue robes) were travelling in a vehicle and were asked to stop at a vegetable market by officials of the ‘mandi' around 6.15 am, police said.

"They were asked to show (curfew) passes. But they banged the vehicle against the gate and barricades put up there," Senior Superintendent of Police, Patiala, Mandeep Singh Sidhu said.

"They were asked to show (curfew) passes. But they crashed the vehicle against the the gate and barricades put up there," Senior Superintendent of Police, Patiala, Mandeep Singh Sidhu said.

The group then attacked the police personnel on duty, he said.

"An ASI's (Assistant Sub Inspector) hand was chopped off by a sword. A Station House Officer of Sadar Patiala sustained an injury on his elbow and anther official suffered an injury on his arm in the attack," Sidhu said.

The attackers fled to Balbera close by and were arrested from a gurdwara there, police said.