In a shocking incident, a man was found murdered near a site where farmers are protesting on the Singhu border.
The Singhu border, between Haryana and Delhi, has been one of the main locations where farmers' groups opposed to the agriculture reform laws have been protesting since late 2020.
The victim was allegedly tied up and his hand was chopped off. NDTV reported the man was found tied to an overturned police barricade at the farmers' protest site on Friday morning.
NDTV reported a group of Nihang Sikhs (a warrior community) were being blamed for the incident, though this has not been confirmed by authorities. NDTV reported the perpetrators, "beat the young man—who is not yet identified—to death for allegedly desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs' holy book. They reportedly beat him to death, hung the body on the police barricade and then cut off the wrist."
Videos from the site show some Nihangs standing over the man while he was still alive in a pool of blood after his hand had been cut off. The group, carrying spears, forced the man to tell his name and details of his native village.
Last year, a group of Nihangs allegedly chopped off the hand of a police officer in Patiala after he sought that they produce movement passes for travelling during COVID lockdown.
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BJP IT operations head Amit Malviya hit out at farmers' leader Rakesh Tikait over the incident. Malviya claimed Tikait had "justified" lynching at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.
Malviya tweeted, "Had Rakesh Tikait not justified mob lynching in Lakhimpur, with Yogendra Yadav, sitting next to him, maintaining sanctimonious silence, the gory murder of a youth at Kundali border would not have happened. Anarchists behind these protests in the name of famers need to be exposed."
Malviya earlier tweeted alleging the farmers' protests had resulted in anarchy. "Rape, murder, prostitution, violence and anarchy... all this has happened in the name of peasant movement.
Now the brutal murder of a young man on the Kundli border of Haryana...What the heck is going on? Who are these people doing this anarchy in the name of farmers' movement who are defaming the farmers?"
(With inputs from Aayush Goel)