Nihang members unlikely to leave Singhu protest site, says source

PTI, Oct 28, 2021, 8:09 AM IST

Members of the Sikhs’ Nihang order, who are camping at Singhu on the Delhi-Haryana border in support of farmers protesting the three Central agri laws, are unlikely to leave the site, sources said on Wednesday.

A leader of the Nihangs said a Mahapanchayat of the religious order was held on Wednesday at Singhu and the decision of the mass meeting will be announced at a press conference on Thursday.

”We are unlikely to leave the Singhu border. We are here to support farmers,” a source, who attended the meeting, said.

The development comes after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the anti-farm laws protests, reportedly asked the Nihangs to leave the agitation site following the lynching of a Dalit labourer for allegedly desecrating a Sikh holy book.

The body of the labourer, Lakhbir Singh, 35, from Punjab’s Taran Taran district, with a hand chopped off was found tied to an overturned police barricade at the farmers’ protest site at the Singhu border on October 15.

Two members of the Nihang order was arrested and two more ”surrendered” before Sonipat Police in connection with the lynching incident even as the victim’s family questioned the attackers’ claim that he committed sacrilege and demanded a high-level probe.