Residents of Nagrasu in Rudraprayag district are baffled by the way the Pushkar Singh Dhami government dealt with the seven Nihangs who had stormed the gurudwara, terrorised people, hurled stones at police and issued open threats, calling for strict action against the “violence mongers”.
“How can the government allow such violence mongers to happily leave the place after capturing the Damdama Sahib Gurudwara for three days, damaging it and forcing the government to make unlawful promises to them,” local social worker Mohit Dimri said in Rudraprayag on Wednesday.
“They disrupted peace and took law and order into their hands, but they were sent to Punjab without any legal action being taken against them. The Uttarakhand government utterly failed to provide a sense of security to the people. These people forced the government to dance to their tune and agree to transfer the Karnaprayag attack case to Haridwar. The government is clearly under political pressure. We want the government to take legal action against them,” Dimri added.
Laxman Singh Rawat, former student union leader from Rudraprayag, said Nagrasu — a picturesque forest village comprising 1,200 residents — never faced such a tense situation. “It is a peaceful place. We can’t believe that some people captured a religious site here for more than three days, but they were respectfully sent home,” Rawat said.
Behant Singh, chief of the gurudwara committee, had accused the Nihangs of damaging the shrine’s water pipeline and solar panels. “They wanted us to speak in support of the four Nihangs who had attacked and injured four people in Karnaprayag on June 17 following a parking dispute. We don’t approve of violence. Those who had barged into the gurudwara were threatening to harm us, but we didn’t file any FIR,” Singh said.
The Nihangs descended from the second floor of the gurudwara on Tuesday and left for their homes in Punjab after government officers told them that the Karnaprayag case had been transferred to Haridwar in keeping with their demand.
