By IANS
Amritsar : Tension and high drama was witnessed outside the venue of a crucial meeting of Sikh clergy and community leaders at the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex here Sunday when a Punjab policeman was caught by Sikh volunteers with a revolver.
Temple volunteers also clashed with media persons inside the complex. This led to injuries to a few media persons who alleged their cameras and other equipment were damaged by volunteers armed with swords and sticks.
The police official was in plain-clothes when he was surrounded by angry Sikh volunteers inside the Golden Temple complex – which houses the holiest of Sikh shrines, Harmandar Sahib.
Carrying of firearms, including that by security personnel, is banned inside the complex.
The police official was beaten up by the volunteers and later rushed to a hospital even as the top Sikh religious leadership was meeting inside the Akal Takht – the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs – to decide on the community's further course of action on the controversy over Dera (sect) Sacha Sauda chief – Gurmit Ram Rahim.
The sect godman had attired himself like 10th Sikh guru Gobind Singh recently that led to widespread protests by Sikhs in Punjab and elsewhere.
Punjab witnessed five days of sectarian violence last week that left one dead and nearly 100 injured.
The Punjab police Sunday registered a case against the sect chief for offending religious sentiments of the Sikhs by portraying himself as the last Sikh guru.