Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Sirhind, August 4

A day after the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Samiti’s (ABHSS) Punjab president was killed allegedly by his security guard, communal tension gripped Sirhind town. Representatives of various Hindu organisations and radical Sikh groups raised slogans against and in favour of Khalistan at the Akali Market in the afternoon.

Members of Sikh organisations raised slogans reportedly after various Hindu outfits, including BJP, ABHSS, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena (Balthakrey and Hindustan), gave a bandh call and forced shopkeepers to close the shutters.

The police made elaborate security arrangements and dispersed leaders of both groups. Hindu organisations raised slogans against the state government and the police.

Nishant Sharma, president of the North India Student wing of the ABHSS, alleged they were being targeted as they had tried to manhandle Jagtar Singh Hawara in Chandigarh in November 2011. “We have been receiving threat calls from Khalistan Liberation Force and have submitted a recording of such calls to the police,” he said.

Jalandhar Range IG Lok Nath Angra said: “ABHSS chief Manish Sood and his guard Somnath had consumed liquor last night and the murder followed an altercation between the two. Their mobile phones have been seized and we are trying to trace their call details.”

Meanwhile, a board of three doctors conducted the post-mortem. Three bullets were recovered from the victim’s body. (Inputs: Surinder Bhardwaj)