SIRSA: The stalemate continues at the headquarters of Gurmeet Ram Rahim SIngh’s Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa. At least 30,000 followers are believed to be inside the 1000-acre campus and they refuse to come out. The riot police and the army personnel have woven a ring around the campus and kept their grip tight on the town in Punjab, nearly 250 km from state capital Chandigarh. Ram Rahim’s followers had gone on a rampage on Friday after he was convicted in a 15-year-old rape case – he will be sentenced tomorrow in Rohtak, where a huge number of paramilitary forces are being stationed.
Here are the top 10 updates in this big story:
- The Army said its soldiers have no orders yet to enter the Dera campus in Sirsa. While they have stopped repeated announcements on loudspeakers, asking the people to come out, they have managed to open up channels of communication with the inmates inside. Some distance from the Dera, a media van came under attack this morning.
- On Saturday, the authorities in Punjab searched and sanitized all 98 campuses of the sect in the state — referred to as Naam Charcha Ghars — said Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Barring Sirsa, the complexes across Haryana were vacated. Some of the complexes were sealed.
- Security forces recovered sticks, rods and other materials to make petrol bombs in search operations in the complexes. Near the Sirsa campus, 2 AK-47s and a pistol were found in a car during routine search.
- Several guards providing Z-plus security to the self-styled spiritual leader were arrested for allegedly misbehaving with the police while he was being taken to jail on Friday. “Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s bodyguards wanted to take him in his car, but as he was convicted, we said he will be taken in the police car,” Haryana police chief BS Sandhu said today. “We arrested the bodyguards who misbehaved,” he said.
- Ram Rahim, 50, who has been convicted for raping two women followers in 2002, is currently at a jail in Rohtak. He faces a sentence of at least 7 years in jail.
- In view of the widespread violence after his conviction, he would not be brought to Panchkula for the sentencing on Monday. Judge Jagdeep Singh, who delivered the verdict, will be taken to the prison for the court proceedings. The Haryana government is stationing 28 companies of paramilitary troops in Rohtak.
- After the conviction of the Dera chief on Friday, his supporters went berserk, attacking railway stations, petrol pumps and television vans in towns across Punjab and Haryana. Shocking pictures from Panchkula showed dozens of cars were burning as a bleeding man lay in the middle of a road. Dense smoke hung over the whole area.
- In a severe reprimand to the Haryana government, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said, “You let Panchkula burn for your political motives.” The court has said the many properties of Ram Rahim’s sect will be seized to pay for the massive damages caused to public property.
- The district administration relaxed curfew from 6 am to 11 am in Sirsa today to allow residents to buy food and other essential items. Petrol pumps, shops and other commercial establishments were allowed to open in the area. Curfew was also withdrawn in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, which saw the maximum violence on Friday.
- Curfew was also in place in Sirsa and Kaithal in Haryana as well in some towns in Punjab. Large gatherings have been banned in 11 districts of Delhi, nine districts of Uttar Pradesh and one in Rajasthan after violence along the border with Haryana.
