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Rajwinder

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SPNer
May 2, 2006
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11 injured as Sikh rival worshippers clash in Vienna

"Witnesses said the fight erupted at the Sikh temple after a dispute over the sermon, given by a man identified by the Austrian Press Agency as Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha."

I am really very sad over this incident :8-:). What impression we put in this foreign country and that too due to what reason. " Inside Sikh's them selves we are not sure what is right and what is wrong or in other words what we should follow and and what not ? "

Some times i really think if there were no religions then was that a better world ?
 

Admin

SPNer
Jun 1, 2004
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SPN
Vienna (Austria)/Jalandhar (India): In India, fighting between mainstream Sikhs and followers of guru Ravi Das of Dera Sachkhand broke out in Jalandhar several hours after the Vienna clash, in what locals there said appeared to be reaction to the melee in the Austrian capital.

Sanjiv Kalra, a senior police official at Jalandhar, said that protesters had set fire to a number of vehicles and erected several roadblocks across the city.

He gave no other details.

What happened in Vienna

Sikhs wielding knives and a handgun attacked a preacher at a rival temple in Vienna on Sunday in a brawl that left at least 11 people wounded, police and witnesses said.

Police spokesman Michael Takacs said the clash occurred in Sikh temple. Mohinder Ram, a worshipper who said he had attended services there for decades, identified it as a temple run by followers of Shri Guru Ravidas, a late founder of a Sikh sect called Dera Sachkhand.

In Vienna, witnesses spoke of the chaos that broke out shortly after a group of bearded and turbaned men attacked the preacher and his followers moved to defend him.

"Everybody was praying and then it started with knives and a pistol," said Nermal Singh, his shirt bloodied and his head bandaged from what he said was a knife wound.

Ram, 72, said, "I heard four to five shots" in the temple. "People started screaming, children were crying as they ran out.

"It was like war. There was lots of blood everywhere."

Police spokesman Michael Takacs said the scene was "like a battlefield."

He said all six attackers were in critical condition, while the wounds of the others were less serious. More people may have been slightly hurt and run out of the temple before police arrived, he said.

Witnesses said the perpetrators were fundamentalist Sikhs from a higher caste, who accused the preacher of being disrespectful with the Holy Book.

All the wounded were men of Indian origin and estimated between 30 and 50 years old, spokesman Bernhard Segal of Vienna medical services said.

Ram said about 400 people were at the service when the fight broke out in the temple, in a residential building of the working-class Viennese neighbourhood.

Four ambulances and three medical helicopters transported the victims to hospitals.

The temple is situated in Vienna-Rudolfsheim, the capital's 15th district near Westbahnhof, one of Vienna's main train stations. Police cordoned off the area.

The Dera Sachkhand sect comprises mostly Sikhs belonging to the lower Dalit caste.

There are several such Deras across the northern state of Punjab. While there are disagreements between the Deras and Sikh religious authorities, violent clashes are rare.
 

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kds1980

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Apr 3, 2005
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INDIA
Curfew was clamped in Jalandhar city on Sunday night and Army alerted as tension gripped this district after violence flared up and protestors resorted to arson within hours after the head of a Dera sect was attacked in a Gurudwara shootout in Vienna.

Six buses were damaged in stone-pelting in Phagwara and Adampur, near Jalandhar, and a truck torched while traffic was blocked on a National Highway No 1. An ATM of a bank was also set on fire.

Police said curfew was clamped in Jalandhar town as a precautionary measure and Army has been alerted.

The Jalandhar cantonment station was attacked by protestors who targeted a EMU train and a passenger train, police said, adding, two express trains including an Amritsar-bound Shatabdi was stranded at the station after protestors gathered there in large numbers.

Tension gripped Jalandhar when followers of Dera Sachkhand and various Dalit bodies took to the streets after the news of firing on Sant Niranjan Dass, the Dera head, in the Austrian capital spread. The Dera was established by Sant Sarwan Dass and Sant Niranjan Dass is the current incumbent (Gadi Nasheen).

Activists of various Dalit bodies, including Ambedkar Sena and BSP, blocked vehicular traffic in Phagwara for nearly an hour on National Highway No 1 on the over-bridge near Sugar Mill crossing to protest the Vienna incident, police said.

Some of the protesters pelted stones at vehicles, damaging three buses, they said, adding no passenger was injured in the incident. Three buses were attacked in Adampur.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal appealed to all Punjabis to maintain calm.

Protesters also gave a call for Phagwara bandh on Monday.

In Buta Mandi locality in Phagwara, followers of the sect torched a truck parked in the area, police said.

Senior Superintendent of Police R K Jaiswal said policemen have been deployed at sensitive points to check any untoward incident. Hundreds of the Dera followers have also assembled at the Dera premises at Ballan village.

At least 11 people were injured, nine of them seriously when two groups of Sikh worshippers clashed with knives and handgun at a gurdwara in Vienna on Sunday, Vienna police said.

The fight erupted following a dispute over the sermon given by a priest from Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha.

At least six men, one wielding a gun and the others knives, attacked the preacher and others.
 

GillAUS

SPNer
Apr 20, 2009
36
30
Australia
I bet you the people that did this think they are doing the Sikh community a favour.

I really hope it isn't going to be glorified in some way because there is NO way that what they did is righteous.

Regardless of the motive, this totally goes against Guru ji's teachings - why can't people remember that it is ONLY when ALL other means have FAILED, that pre-emptive physical force should be employed.

Really sad that this is doing the rounds all over the world media.

Thanks to these guys, the Austrian laws which actually do allow for Sikhs to carry Kirpans will probably be debated.
 

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