A policeman's hand was chopped off and two other police officials were injured when a group of people allegedly attacked them in Punjab’s Patiala district on Sunday, 12 April, police told PTI. The incident triggered a police operation, in which 11 people were arrested at a gurudwara.
The group fled after the attack and holed itself up in the Nihang Dera complex which also houses Gurudwara Khichdi Sahib at Balbera village, about 25 km from Patiala. The stand-off at the gurudwara lasted hours, till police entered it and arrested 11 people, including the five involved in the attack at a local market.
A Nihang Dera member, Nirbhav Singh, suffered a gunshot wound and was admitted to Patiala hospital, police said.
Re-implantation of Singh’s Hand Successful
Commenting on the situation, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh said that the surgery to repair the severed wrist of ASI Harjeet Singh was “successful.” He said:
“I am happy to share that a seven-and-a-half hour long surgery has been successfully completed in PGI to repair the severed wrist of ASI Harjeet Singh. I thank the entire team of doctors and support staff for their painstaking effort. Wishing ASI Harjeet Singh a speedy recovery.”Amarinder Singh, Punjab CM
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta also confirmed that the “re-implantation of the left hand of ASI Harjeet Singh has been done.” He said that at the end of the surgery, “it was valuated at the end of surgery that hand is viable, warm with good circulation.”
On Sunday, a group of four-five 'Nihangs' (Sikhs armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue tops) were travelling in a vehicle and they were asked to stop at a vegetable market at around 6:15 am by the Mandi board officials, they said.
“They were asked to show (curfew) passes. But they crashed the vehicle against the the gate and barricades put up there,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Patiala, Mandeep Singh Sidhu said.
The group then attacked the police personnel on duty, he added. “An ASI’s (Assistant Sub Inspector) hand was chopped off by a sword. A Station House Officer of Sadar Patiala sustained an injury on his elbow and another official suffered an injury on his arm in the attack,” Sidhu said.
The ASI was rushed to the Rajindra hospital, from where he was referred to PGIMER in Chandigarh. The incident took place when a lockdown is in place in the state because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Tweeting about the incident, the Punjab Police Chief said that top plastic surgeons at PGI Hospital in Chandigarh are treating the policeman.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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