[The special court had announced the guilty verdict Friday after hearing closing arguments in the 15-year-old case against the guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan.]
By
The Associated Press
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Supporters
of Indian religious leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh clashed with security
forces
in Panchkula. Credit Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters
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PANCHKULA,
India — Mobs rampaged across
a north Indian town on Friday, leaving at least 13 people dead and buildings in
flames, after a court declared a quasi-religious sect leader guilty of raping
two of his followers.
Police used water cannons in an attempt to
disperse the crowd in the town of Panchkula, and a spokesman for the guru’s
sect urged his supporters to remain calm.
The violence so far had left 13 dead,
including some with bullet wounds, and more than 100 injured, according to Dr.
V.K. Bansal, chief medical officer at the state-run Panchkula Civil Hospital.
More than 15,000 paramilitary troops and
police officers, some on horseback, were deployed in the city.
Mobs set fire to government buildings and
attacked police and journalists, smashing the windshields of television vans and
breaking broadcast equipment. Police initially used tear gas and water cannons,
and then fired bullets in the air in an attempt to control the surging mobs as
they vandalized bus stations and government vehicles.
A curfew was imposed in at least four
districts of Punjab, said Amrinder Singh, the state chief minister.
The special court had announced the guilty
verdict Friday after hearing closing arguments in the 15-year-old case against
the guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan.
Mr. Singh — who had denied the charges of
raping the two women at his ashram in 2002 — was taken into custody and will be
held until his Aug. 28 sentencing hearing, prosecutor H.P.S. Verma said.
Panchkula administrators had feared that a
guilty verdict would trigger violence among the tens of thousands of followers
who had camped overnight awaiting the verdict.
Violence also broke out in several places
across the neighboring states of Haryana and Punjab, police said. Railway
stations in the towns of Malout and Balluana were ablaze, and two coaches of an
empty train parked in New Delhi’s Anand Vihar station were also set on fire.
A spokesman for the Dera Sacha Sauda appealed
for calm while the sect explored legal ways to pursue justice for the guru.
“I just want to request everyone to maintain
peace at the moment,” said Dilawar Insan. “We will explore what legal options
are available to us.”
Police were also on alert across the Indian
capital, and had contained several small outbreaks of violence in New Delhi,
according to a police control room officer who spoke condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak with media.
Angry mobs also attacked police in the town
of Sirsa, where the guru’s ashram is located, according to a local police
control room.
The guru’s Dera Sacha Sauda sect claims to
have some 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug
addiction. It has also taken up social causes such as organizing the weddings
of poor couples.
Such sects have huge followings in India.
It’s not unusual for leaders to have small, heavily armed private militias
protecting them.
When the guru left his ashram in Sirsa early
Friday for the hearing, he was accompanied by a convoy of more than 180
vehicles, said the Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.
Train services were canceled through the
area, leading to railway delays across north India. Schools and colleges were
closed.
The case was tried in a special court run by
India’s top agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In a televised appeal on Thursday, Mr. Singh
had asked his supporters not to resort to violence, but some said they would
not tolerate a verdict that went against their leader.
“I consider guru-ji to be only next to God,”
farmer Malkit Singh said as he squatted on the ground in a Panchkula park,
saying Mr. Singh had cured him of a decade-long addiction to drugs.
“There is a God above,” he said. “Our guru-ji
follows the path of truth.”
