Brawl between SGPC task force personnel and Sikh protesters

A brawl broke out in the Golden Temple complex here between the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) task force and members of some Sikh organisations who have been protesting for a month over the missing Guru Granth Sahib 'saroops', police said on Sunday. The protesters alleged that on Saturday the SGPC task force tried to evict them from the complex and the situation turned tense when one of the agitators was picked up by the task force. They claimed he was freed by the SGPC when matter reached the police.

Some journalists alleged that during the melee, the reporter of a vernacular newspaper was slapped by the task force members and his mobile phone was snatched by them. Later, the scribes complained to the police about the incident. They also alleged that a journalist working with a TV channel was hurt in the incident. Some journalists also staged a protest against the SGPC.

Meanwhile, the SGPC officials claimed that it was the protesters who attacked their employees first. Sikh protesters have been holding a protest for over a month now against the SGPC over the missing of 328 'saroops' (copies of holy Guru Granth Sahib).

SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal on Sunday claimed that six of their employees were hurt in the brawl and hospitalised. Longowal said that SGPC has lodged a criminal complaint against certain people among the protesters who created unruly scenes there.

He alleged that police had not initiated action against the accused. Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, Gyani Harpeet Singh had earlier said that during thorough checking of ledgers keeping record of sale of copies of Guru Granth Sahib it was found that 328 'saroops' were missing from the period between 2013 to 2015. Officials said police force has been deployed outside the complex.