Singhu Horror: Nihangs Mentioned In FIR; Victim Identified As Lakhbir Singh, 35-Year-Old Labourer From SC Community

According to reports that surfaced on Friday morning, a young man was lynched to death around the Kundli barrier, Singhu, near Sonipat, in Haryana. The Kundli barrier is one of the key points on the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway, and for the past year, has been the camping spot for the protesting farmers from Punjab.

Images and videos of the man’s dead body, hanging loose from a barricade were viral on Twitter and other social media networks. As per some local reports, the body was found hanging behind the main stage of the protesting site at Singhu for public display. The man was beaten up, dragged, and after one of his hands was chopped off he was killed.

The murder is being allegedly attributed to a group of Nihang Sikhs, and while the exact cause of the spat that resulted in the killing is not clear, early reports claim that the man had desecrated the holy book Guru Granth Sahib.

Early in the day, the local police were not allowed to reach the spot by the protesting farmers who had cordoned off the entire area and left the body for public display. However, later, police officers from the Kundli Police Station were allowed to take the body to the local civil hospital.

Politics around the incident has already begun with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body for over 40 farmer unions spearheading the agitation, distancing itself from the murder and assuring cooperation with the Haryana government for action against the culprits. As per one of the leaders of the SKM, the Nihang Sikhs have accepted their role in the lynching and the consequential murder.

While Haryana Police has registered an FIR in the case, it has named unknown persons in the FIR, even as there are multiple videos and photographs of the crime.

In one of the videos, a crowd of Nihag Sikhs is seen standing next the victim, who is visibly bleeding to death, and speaking to him in an interrogatory tone.

Shiv Aroor, author and journalist with India Today, shared a copy of the text of the FIR registered in the case.

The FIR mentions that Nihang Sikhs cut off the hands and legs' of the victim and tied him to a barricade. The report also records that when the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, who reached the spot, tried to ask the people standing around the corpse about the crime, no one cooperated.

Update: 2:09 pm

The victim, meanwhile has been identified by the Haryana Police as Lakhbir Singh, 'a 35/36-year-old labourer from Cheema Khurd village, Tarn Taran district'. He belonged to Scheduled Caste community.