Punjab Right Wing Leader Sudhir Suri Shot Dead During Protest Outside Temple

Amritsar:

Sudhir Suri, a Hindutva proper wing chief in Punjab, was shot lifeless on a busy avenue in Amritsar this afternoon in an assault that was caught on digital camera whereas there have been over a dozen cops round him.

Chief of an area outfit that makes use of the identify Shiv Sena Taksali, Mr Suri was holding protest exterior a temple towards its administration when not less than 5 pictures have been fired from a pistol, allegedly by an area shopkeeper.

Because of threats from gangsters and Khalistani extremists, Mr Suri had police safety, but the attacker — Sandeep Singh, who has been arrested — was profitable in touchdown not less than two pictures that killed him earlier than he may very well be delivered to a hospital. There have been additionally native cops deployed on the spot.

“The accused was arrested instantly and weapon seized. Additional investigation is on,” mentioned metropolis police commissioner, Arun Pal Singh, who didn’t give extra particulars.

Sources mentioned the attacker, a resident of Sultanwind space of the town, had come to the place with three others in an SUV however they escaped.

Mr Suri, who wasn’t an electoral participant, was largely identified for his fiery — and allegedly communal — video messages on social media concentrating on some Sikh outfits and Khalistan supporters particularly. Police didn’t draw a connection as but.

The police commissioner appealed to the individuals to maintain calm and never give in to any communal calls. Tense messages and conspiracy theories have been going round amongst residents of the Sikh holy metropolis, mentioned native sources.

Earlier immediately, Mr Suri had acquired into an argument with some males from the administration of Gopal Mandir close to Majitha Highway — one of many busiest locations within the metropolis — over alleged sacrilege of idols. He was dwell on Fb barely an hour earlier than the assault, exhibiting some older idols “shamelessly dumped in rubbish”. “We won’t tolerate such sacrilege, even when by fellow Hindus,” he mentioned in that video.

When he was shot, he was on a dharna on the road, sitting subsequent to an affiliate who was seen firing again on the attacker from a revolver.

The killing comes simply months after the homicide, in Might, of one other outstanding particular person with police safety — singer Sidhu Moosewala — elevating questions on Bhagwant Mann’s Aam Aadmi Social gathering authorities that was shaped in March.

Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma was among the many first leaders to react: “The legislation and order scenario has fully damaged down within the state.”

State Congress chief Amarinder Singh ‘Raja’ Warring tweeted: “Regulation and order is deteriorating and going from unhealthy to worse. Congress condemns murderous assault on Shiv Sena chief in Amritsar. Political variations aside, violence is unacceptable. Culprits should be delivered to guide.”

Shiv Sena Taksali president Sudhir Suri had 5 hate speech circumstances towards him.

Sudhi Suri’s homicide additionally brings again reminiscences of a sequence of killings of right-wing or non secular leaders, most of them from Hinduva outfits, in 2016 and 2017, when the Akali Dal-BJP and the Congress have been in energy at totally different instances.

In October 2017, Ludhiana RSS chief Ravinder Gosain, 60, was shot lifeless within the the eighth such incident within the state in a couple of 12 months’s time. In June 2017, Christian pastor Sultan Masih was shot lifeless, whereas others killed in that sequence of assaults have been Dera Sacha Sauda followers in Ludhiana, a frontrunner of an organisation referred to as ‘Hindu Takhat’, additionally in Ludhiana, and RSS chief Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (Retd) in Jalandhar.

In Punjab, plenty of Hindutva outfits use the identify ‘Shiv Sena’, however do not formally have something to do with the Maharashtra-based get together based by Bal Thackeray. State police have been giving safety cowl to many of those leaders as there is a historical past of assaults on them. .