Man beaten to death after alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple

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Man beaten to death after alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple (Image: Ankit Pal)
Man beaten to death after alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple (Image: Ankit Pal)

Amritsar : A man has been beaten to death by a mob after an alleged sacrilege attempt at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Saturday, said the police. 

According to a report, witnesses told that the man jumped over the railing of the sanctum sanctorum inside the Golden Temple during the daily evening prayer and tried to grab the sword kept in front of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. He was stopped and killed by those present.

The TV footage of the prayer shows a man inside the sanctum sanctorum and people rushing to stop him.

The police has confirmed that the man has been killed by the mob after the incident and said they are checking all CCTV cameras to find out where he had come from, when he entered the Golden Temple and how many people were with him.

"This evening during prayers, a man jumped the fence and entered the enclosed area. The congregation was offering prayers and bowing down," Parminder Singh Bhandal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Amritsar, said.

"The man, about 20 to 25 years of age who had a yellow cloth tied on his head jumped the fence... the people inside held him and escorted him out to the corridor where there was a violent altercation and he died," he said.

"He was alone. All details will be revealed as there are a lot of CCTV cameras in the area and our teams are alert, sifting through footage. Postmortem will be done tomorrow. We will verify where he was from," Mr Bhandal added. News agency PTI quoted him saying that the man belonged to Uttar Pradesh.

The incident comes months before the elections are scheduled in Punjab and since it is an emotional matter of Sikhs, a large demand of action in the matter is likely.

Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi condemned the incident on social media.