Police begins crackdown on Dera ashrams in Haryana, 9 centres sealed in Kurukshetra
From AK 47 to petrol bombs, the weapons recovered from the Dera Sacha Sauda followers hint at a very dangerous strategy.
The Haryana Police on Saturday briefed media about the crackdown on 'premis' as the Dera followers are popularly known as and the list of weapons prove they were armed to teeth.
Four rifles, including an AK 47, pistols and petrol bombs were among weapons seized from the supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was convicted in a rape case, the Haryana police said on Saturday.
'Lathis' (wooden staffs), rods, axes etc were also recovered from several Dera centres spread across Haryana and Punjab.
"We have recovered one AK 47 rifle and one Mauser (rifle) from the vehicle of a Dera follower and two rifles and five pistols from another vehicle during the operations," Haryana top cop DGP BS Sandhu said.
He was addressing a joint press conference along with Haryana Chief Secretary D S Dhesi and Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ram Niwas.
Violence had broken out in Haryana and Punjab yesterday, in which over 36 persons lost their lives, following a special CBI court in Panchkula pronouncing Dera Sacha Sauda chief guilty in a rape case.
"We are conducting searches in all the Dera centres in the state where we suspect weapons could have been hidden," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Niwas said.
We have even recovered lathis from places in Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar, he said.
The Kurukshetra Police said that it had sealed nine congregation centres of Dera Sacha Sauda in the district, evicting the followers, and had seized over 2,500 lathis and sharp-edged weapons.
All nine Naam Charcha Ghars (congregation centres) in the district have been sealed, Kurukshetra SP Abhishek Garg told PTI.
"We have recovered 2,500 lathis, some sharp-edged weapons and 2.5 litre kerosene during the search operation. We have evicted all the followers and locked all the nine Naam Charcha Ghars," Garg said.
At the press conference here, Niwas was asked if searches were also being carried out at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa to which he replied in the negative.
"Security personnel are patrolling the outer area of the sect headquarters and keeping a close vigil," he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the state police had visited 98 Dera centres in the state.
"We found lathis, rods, pipes, axes and petrol bombs," he said.
Meanwhile, curfew will be relaxed in Sirsa from 6 AM-11 AM on Sunday.
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