Men beaten to death in India for alleged ‘sacrilege’ to Sikh holy symbols, reports say

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A man was beaten to death by pilgrims at Sikhism’s holiest shrine of Golden Temple in the northern Indian city of Amritsar while another was lynched at Kapurthala for allegedly committing sacrilegious acts against the religion, reports said on Sunday.

The incident at the Golden Temple occurred on Saturday at 5.45pm local time (11:45 GMT) during prayers at the innermost sanctum which remains under camera surveillance and the service is broadcast live on television.

The man allegedly barged into the sanctum where the Sikh holy book of Guru Granth Sahib is kept and attempted to touch a ceremonial sword placed next to the book. He was stopped in his attempt as guards and worshippers dragged him out.

"The man, about 20 to 25 years of age, had a yellow cloth tied on his head and jumped the fence ... the people inside held him and escorted him out to the corridor where there was a violent altercation and he died," Parminder Singh Bandal, deputy commissioner of Amritsar police, told reporters.

The incident of the man jumping the rail was broadcast on live television during the usual evening prayer service programme from the shrine.

The word of the alleged act spread fast and angry pilgrims took hold of him while members of the temple committee of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) tried to take him away.

Police added that a priest was reciting evening hymns when a man dressed in a brown suit rushed into the sanctorum, jumped the fence, trampled the rumala (a decorative cloth on which the holy book is placed), and picked up the sword before he was overpowered by people.

“Before he could go any further, the SGPC employees caught him to take him to the SGPC head office in the Teja Singh Samundri Hall. While the employees were taking him to the office, some of the other devotees present in the shrine beat him up so much that he died upon reaching the office,” Mr Bhandal added.

Punjab state chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi strongly condemned the incident and ordered police to "zero in" on the "underlying motive and real conspirators behind this dastardly act".

He called the sacrilege an "unfortunate and heinous act to attempt sacrilege," in a tweet by his office late on Saturday. Senior state politicians are yet to condemn the act of lynching.

In another incident, a man was beaten to death in Punjab’s Nijampur village in Kapurthala district over an alleged sacrilegious act on Sunday, according to a report by NDTV.

Residents of the district grabbed the man from police custody, alleging that he was seen “disrespecting Nishan Sahib (the Sikh flag) around 4 am,” and lynched him.

This is the third incident in only days when another man was detained for allegedly throwing a Sikh holy book into the pool surrounding the Golden Temple.

“Earlier, sacrilege incidents happened at other places, but now this is being done at the Golden Temple itself,” said SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami, suspecting foul play in light of upcoming elections in the state.

“I feel as the state elections are coming, there may be a deep-rooted conspiracy behind these incidents. Police often shrug off their responsibility by saying that the accused was mentally disturbed,” he added.

The desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib is already a significant issue in a campaign ahead of assembly elections in the state. It has remained a key issue raised by all political parties in Punjab after several desecrations took place in 2014 and 2015.

The man involved in the Golden Temple incident remains unidentified and his body was sent for autopsy. No arrests have been made so far in both cases of lynching.