Dera Violence Haunts Panchkula Residents

PANCHKULA: One year after a mob of Dera supporters ran amok in Panchkula on August 25 after Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted of raping two women, city residents still shudder at the memory.




The sight of a crazed mob and lack of police help led to panic among Panchkula residents. “I saw hundreds of people armed with wooden sticks and stones running towards residential areas. I shouted and asked my family members to close the doors immediately. Suddenly, many of them jumped into my house. What I went through at that time cannot be put into words. Those 30 minutes were horrible,” recalls 49-year-old businessman Yuvraj Rohtas, a resident of Sector 4.


File photo of public property being burned by dera followers, on Aug 25, 2017


In Sectors 2 and 4, which were worst hit by the violence on August 25, residents were shocked at the way the situation escalated. They had never imagined it would pan out the way it did. They saw people being killed. “I saw two women Dera followers pelting stones at houses and security personnel shot them down after warning them. I could not believe it was all real,” said Sector 2 resident Urmil Kaswan, 52.




Trying to escape the police, the mob tried to use residents as cover. “Ten people knocked the door of my house and asked for help. They wanted to hide inside my house to escape the police. I refused and closed the gate. They got enraged and tried to break my front door. But the police and paramilitary forces stopped them. My family was in shock after this,” said Rajesh Kaushal, a local trader and resident of Sector 4.

Up to this day, Panchkula residents wonder why Dera followers were allowed to gather in the city when Section 144 had been imposed. A few retired Army personnel from Sector 2 said Dera followers were more organized than security forces.

“They used to wake up at 4am and tea was served to them. Food came on time on all three days. They formed lines and moved together every day,” they recalled.

Besides damaging property, Dera followers also damaged the city’s green cover and parks by open defecation. “I stopped a Dera follower from urinating behind my house on Friday morning. He called other followers and the group threw a stone at my house, breaking a window. They told me to keep quiet and stay inside,” said Colonel B N L Kaushal (Retd), 75, a resident of Sector 2.

Confined to their houses and surrounded by mobs, Panchkula residents clicked photographs and made videos of the violence. Later, police took the help of photographs taken by locals, mediapersons and their own professional photographers to identify criminals.

After the violence, residents of Sector 2 built strong metal gates at all entry and exit points of their sector.