COVID-19: Frontline Under Attack As Lockdown Violators Chop Off Policeman’s Hand In Patiala

Chandigarh: In a gruesome attack on frontline personnel fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Sikhs chopped off a policeman’s hand and hurt two other police officials in Punjab’s Patiala district on Sunday morning.

According to police, four-five ‘Nihangs’ (Sikhs armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue top), travelling in a vehicle, were asked to stop near a vegetable market around 6.15 am.

“They were asked to show (curfew) passes. They didn’t, and instead, crashed the vehicle against the gate and barricades put up there,” said Mandeep Singh Sidhu, Senior Superintendent of Police, Patiala.

The coronavirus lockdown violators then attacked policemen on duty.

“An ASI’s (Harjeet Singh) hand was chopped off by a sword. A Station House Officer of Sadar Patiala sustained an injury on his elbow and another official suffered an injury on his arm,” informed Sidhu.

According to latest reports, the ASI is undergoing surgery at PGIMER in Chandigarh.

The attackers, who fled the scene, were traced to Balbera and arrested by local police later in the day.