The newly-formed Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) took over the historic Nauvin Paatshahi gurdwara in Kaithal district even as its supporters clashed with the police and Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) workers outside another gurdwara in Kurukshetra.
On Wednesday morning, HSGPC members gathered in large numbers outside the Kurukshetra gurdwara, where more than 600 SGPC workers have been camping for the past several days to prevent a takeover.
The HSGPC workers tried to enter the gurdwara by breaking the police barricades. In the ensuing clash, five policemen were injured. The police had to lathicharge, use water cannons and burst teargas shells to disperse the HSGPC supporters.
The president of the ad hoc HSGPC, Jagdish Singh Jhinda, alleged that his supporters retaliated when SGPC members started throwing stones at them.
Even as the administration and the SGPC were trying to prevent an escalation of the violence in Kurukshetra, more than 100 HSGPC supporters in 25 vehicles went to the Kaithal gurdwara on the Punjab and Haryana border.
As they reached, the 30-odd SGPC task force members and employees manning the gurdwara quietly left the premises. The Kaithal district administration has since increased security at the shrine and cordoned it off to prevent any untoward incident. All roads leading to the gurdwara have been sealed and devotees are being screened.
Wednesday's clash took place after behind-the-scene talks between the two warring groups held at Jagadhari failed. A peace formula in which SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar was to nominate a five-member committee to work out a compromise was rejected by HSGPC leaders, who have declared that they will intensify their efforts to take control of all Sikh shrines in Haryana.
