A policeman’s hand was chopped off and few others were injured on Sunday (April 12) after a group of people defying the Covid-19 (coronavirus) lockdown allegedly attacked them in the northern Indian state of Punjab, police said
The attack took place at Sanaur vegetable market in Patiala district, about 72km southwest of Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab.
According to reports, the coronavirus lockdown in the state of Punjab had turned violent, with a team of police officers attacked and heavily injured by armed locals who defied the cops’ request to show their curfew passes.
The clash broke out at a vegetable market in Patiala, a city in eastern Punjab, after a group of Nihangs – people from a Sikh order – armed with traditional weapons tried to enter the premises but were stopped at the entrance by local staff who asked to see their curfew passes. The altercation drew the attention of police officers standing nearby, but their intervention went profoundly awry.
The police have identified the attackers as Nihangs — armed Sikh warriors.
Following the attack, the group fled away to Gurdwara (Sikh temple) Khichri Sahib, where, after an initial standoff, the police arrested seven of them.
Officials said one of them was wounded in police firing and removed to a hospital.
Punjab Police Chief said in a brief statement: “In an unfortunate incident today morning, a group of Nihangs injured a few police officers and a Mandi Board official at Sabzi Mandi, Patiala.
“ASI Harjeet Singh whose hand got cut-off has reached PGI Chandigarh,” .
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (locally called PGI) is a premier health facility in Chandigarh.
Assistant sub-inspector Harjit Singh’s hand was later reattached after a plastic surgery lasting seven and a half hours at Chandigarh’s PGI hospital.
Punjab government on Friday extended the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in the state until May 1.
