The Punjab police has arrested a senior Sikh cleric whose inflammatory remarks targeting Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh led to violent clashes followed by an indefinite curfew in the southwestern township of Bhiki on Sunday.
Even as tension prevailed amidst the thousands of Dera adherents in Mansa district, the radical Sikh preacher Baljit Singh Daduwal was remanded to judicial custody at Ferozepur along with 50 of his closest followers.
But despite the administration’s decision to arrest Daduwal, the curfew in Bhiki continued for the second consecutive day in view of the fact that his utterances had intensely provoked the Sacha Sauda adherents. District officials said they were keen to pre-empt any repeat of the 2007 sectarian clashes between Sikhs and Dera supporters.
Exercising caution heavy police deployment was ordered across several Mansa settlements while armed constabulary conducted a flag march at Bhiki.
The trouble at Bhikhi had started on Saturday after Baljit Daduwal denigrated the Dera chief during a religious congregation.
While the Mansa district administration snapped electric power to the venue of the congregation to stop the cleric’s incendiary remarks from reaching the town people, followers of Daduwal grew furious and clashed with the police personnel. Meanwhile, Mansa’s SSP Hardayal Mann said that a decision on lifting the curfew at Bhiki would only be taken after the situation improves.