Sikhs defy police order in Indian city after killing of protester

Hundreds of members of Jammu's Sikh community took to the streets for a third day of protests sparked by the police's removal of posters marking the death of a Sikh secessionist leader.

Sikh protesters throw stones at Indian policemen during a protest in the city of Jammu on June 4, 2015. Channi Anand/AP Photo

NEW DELHI // Hundreds of Sikh protesters defied an order against gatherings in the Indian city of Jammu on Friday, taking to the streets for a third day of protests sparked by the removal of posters marking the death of a Sikh secessionist leader.

It came just hours after an indefinite curfew was imposed in the city’s Ranibagh neighbourhood after a 24-year-old Sikh protester was shot dead by police during clashes with protesters on Thursday.

Protesters on Friday blocked a section of the motorway leading from Jammu to Pathankot, and burnt tyres, ignoring a citywide rule preventing gatherings of more than four people that had also gone into effect on Thursday.

The anti-government protests spread to the cities of Srinagar and Baramulla in the Kashmir Valley, as well as to the districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua.

Meanwhile, schools and colleges were closed for the day across the city, following a police order issued on Thursday. Internet services were also shut down.

Thursday’s clashes came after Jammu’s police force on Wednesday removed posters of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who led a secessionist insurgency in the state of Punjab in the early 1980s. He was killed in a military operation in 1984.

However, Bhindranwale’s role in the current tensions is an unexpected one. While he is still respected and commemorated by Sikhs in parts of Punjab, he is a less significant figure in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. There, communal tensions have always revolved around the Hindu-Muslim divide.

The posters of Bhindranwale in Jammu had been put up by local Sikh organisations to mark the anniversary of the militant leader’s death on June 6. Their removal set off the first round of protests on Wednesday, with demonstrators demanding that the posters be put back up. A police sub-inspector was stabbed during a clash with one group of protesters.

On Thursday morning, policemen were then found guarding the spots where the posters had once been affixed. That triggered further protests by hundreds of Sikhs in Jammu.

Late on Thursday afternoon, some members of the crowd began pelting stones at police who had turned out to control the protests.

The police retaliated with tear gas, beatings with staves, and cautionary firing in the air.

One protester, 24-year-old Bhai Jagjit Singh, was shot by police and died on the way to hospital. Three civilians and three policemen were also injured in the clashes.

An official in prime minister Narendra Modi’s office, Jitendra Singh, said on Friday that the police killing of Bhai Jagjit was “a matter of great concern”.

India’s home ministry had promised the Jammu and Kashmir government a “sufficient number of armed forces personnel in case the need arises”, Mr Singh said.

In the Jammu part of the state, Sikhs comprise roughly 3.5 per cent of the population. Hindus make up 65 per cent, while Muslims make up around 30 per cent.

In Kashmir, meanwhile, Sikhs form less than 1 per cent of the population, which is otherwise almost 98 per cent Muslim, with the remainder being Hindu.

Bhindranwale’s posters have never appeared in Jammu before, with his secessionist movement always considered distant from Kashmir’s own problems of militancy and law and order.

One former army officer, who has served in Jammu and Kashmir, said that the army and security forces were often on edge in the state, where unrest is common.

"The mindset is of safety first," he told The National, pointing out that policemen were under pressure to not let situations get out of control or devolve into a spiral of violence. "You don't want to take chances. You're trained to shoot first."