In a shocking incidence from Punjab’s Patiala district, a police officer’s hand was cut and two other officers were injured when a group of people attacked them at a vegetable market today morning.
The police said they were attacked when they were trying to ensure the lockdown was in place. Punjab – where thousands of people staying abroad returned after the outbreak started – has extended the lockdown till May 1.
The officer whose hand was chopped off — Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police Harjeet Singh — has been taken to the hospital, where the doctors are operating on him.
Punjab police chief Dinkar Gupta told NDTV that a vehicle carrying Nihangs – a religious sect – had “crashed through several barricades on the periphery of the vegetable market” around 6 am. When the police team stopped them and demanded to see their curfew passes, the lockdown violators attacked the police party, he said.
After the attackers fled to the Nihang Gurdwara Saheb, the police went there with reinforcements, which included personnel from the Special Operations Group and asked the attackers to surrender.
“After a two-hour stand-off, a team of mediators headed by the local sarpanch, entered the gurdwara. After another half an hour the perpetrators surrendered. They came out carrying swords and knives. The police also recovered gas cylinders which could have been used as explosives,” Mr Gupta told NDTV.
Top officers said the three persons involved in the attack have been arrested. Three others have been detained for questioning, the sources said.
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