Days after a policeman was killed after a dispute between two factions of Nihang Sikhs over the possession of the gurdwara turned violent, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday requested Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the “sacrilegious armed attack” on the Sikh shrine in Sultanpur Lodhi.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the Governor, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said “the armed attack on the peaceful sangat at 4 am when it was reciting gurbani has reminded Sikhs of a similar attack on Sri Darbar Sahib in Amritsar in 1984. Sikhs worldwide are outraged and they are now seeking justice for this heinous act”.

Badal claimed as per sources, the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had ordered the Kapurthala Police to remove one faction of Nihang Singhs from Gurdwara Akal Bunga Sahib to facilitate a takeover to favour his close friend and head of a rival faction of Nihang Singhs.

“It is even more despicable that the CM gave this order reportedly in an inebriated condition at night due to which the Kapurthala Police entered the Gurdwara premises in the early morning in full combat uniform with assault rifles and indulged in wanton firing,” he added.

The SAD chief said Mann had compounded his crime by forming a SIT to probe the incident which was headed by the same police officer who had carried out the orders of the CM.

He said in such circumstances only a CBI probe could lay bare the entire conspiracy and culminate in registration of a murder case as well as that for hurting religious sentiments against the chief minister as well as the police officers responsible for this ghastly incident.

Asserting that the entire act was aimed at helping a particular Nihang faction, the SAD president said “this is why the attack was perpetrated despite the fact that there was no breakdown in the law and order situation at Sultanpur Lodhi. It is even more galling that this attack was perpetrated when Sikhs were in the process of commemorating the Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji in the historical town associated with him”.

On 23 November, a group of Nihangs allegedly opened fire at cops at about 4 a. m. when they went there to clear the premises following an alleged attempt to take control of the Gurdwara Akal Bunga at Sultanpur Lodhi. Nihang Sikhs are armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue robes.