New Delhi (CNN) An Indian policeman's hand was chopped off with a sword and six other officers were severely injured when they were attacked while enforcing coronavirus lockdown measures in northern Punjab state on Sunday morning.

The severed left hand of Harjit Singh, an assistant sub inspector for Punjab Police, was later reattached to his wrist following nearly eight hours of surgery.

The attack took place when a vehicle carrying seven men -- who belong to the minority Sikh warrior sect known as the Nihangs -- was stopped at a barricade outside a vegetable market in Patiala district, KBS Sidhu, a senior state government official, told CNN.

When police asked the men for valid travel passes, one of them took out a sword and cut off Singh's hand.

Police officers show sharp-edged weapons recovered in Patiala, India, on April 12.

The injured officers, one with sword wounds to his back, were taken to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh.

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