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Dera Sirsa follower who attacked
Sikhs shot dead
WSN Network
 MANSA:
Tensions marred
Punjab again as
a Dera Sauda activist, accused of involvement in anti-Sikh clashes,
was on Tuesday shot dead by unidentified assailants near Chakerian
village, 8 km from here. Lilli Kumar was attacked when he was
returning to his village Alampur Mandran on a motorcycle after
appearing in the court of District and Sessions Judge at Mansa in
connection with a criminal case registered against him after a Dera-
Sikh clash in September 2007.
Four
motorcycle-borne assailants pumped several bullets into Lilli near
Chakerian Chowk around
3 pm. The body
was taken to Mansa Civil Hospital,where hundreds of Dera followers
started gathering, including the 25-member core committee of Dera.
Police were deployed in strength around the hospital. SSP Manminder
Singh visited the hospital as well as the murder site.
He said a case
had been registered and a Special Investigation Team, headed by SP
(Detective) Sukhpal Singh, constituted to investigate the crime.
Lilli Kumar, a patwari, had been booked by the Mansa police for
alleged involvement in initiating a violent clash at Alampur Mandran
village on
September 3,
2007.
He had organised
a naam charcha (religious discourse) at his house in the village
despite objections. As Sikhs of the area arrived to stop the
function, Lilli Kumar allegedly threw acid on them. A case under
Sections 307, 148, 149 and 324 of the IPC was then registered
against him and others at Boha police station. Fourteen persons had
been injured in the clash that followed. A large number of followers
of the dera have been repeatedly involved in attacks against the
Sikhs because of the community’s objections to activities of the
dera head who is already a rape and murder accused in a case being
investigated by the CBI. The dera head had blatantly tried to
imitate the Sikh gurus and has refused to apologise, rather making a
mockery of such demands with half-apologies.
29
July 2009
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