More than 200 Nihangs, including women, forcibly entered Dehradun district on Thursday night, demanding the immediate release of four of their community members arrested at Karnaprayag in Chamoli on June 17 on assault charges.

Uttarakhand police sources said some of them were still present in the state capital, and nobody knew their next course of action.

There was a heavy police deployment to prevent the entry of Nihangs who had announced a protest march to Uttarakhand. The Kulhal checkpoint in Vikasnagar on the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border was turned into a fortified zone, with personnel in riot gear standing behind multi-layered metal barricades.

A local police officer said over 200 Nihangs from Chandigarh breached the barricades on Thursday night in an attempt to proceed towards Hemkund Sahib.

“The Nihangs moved forward in their cars and on motorcycles while flashing swords and iron rods. After meeting police and district administration authorities, some of them returned to Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh. Some Uttarakhand officials are still in touch with them. Some of the Nihangs are camping at the Racecourse gurudwara in Dehradun, but we don’t have any idea about the whereabouts of over 30 others,” the police officer said.

Vaibhav Gupta, in charge of Kulhal police station, said a case had been registered against unidentified people for violating the prohibitory order against gathering of five or more persons and the carrying of sharp weapons.

“The Nihangs have placed many demands, including a safe passage to Hemkund Sahib, but we can’t allow them to move forward because they are flashing swords,” he said.

“We don’t want any confrontation with the people of Uttarakhand. They are good people. But the government is playing tricks with us. We want the government to drop the charges against the four arrested Nihangs because one-sided action was taken in Karnaprayag. We will return once our friends are released,” a Nihang told reporters in Dehradun.

Chamoli police had arrested four Nihangs in Karnaprayag for attacking and injuring four locals following a parking dispute. To protest the arrest and secure the release of their brethren, seven Nihangs had stormed the Damdama gurudwara in Rudryaprayag’s Nagrasu village on June 20 and refused to vacate the premises for three days.