Chandigarh: Dera Sacha Sauda sect followers on Saturday set fire to two trains and rioted in various parts of Punjab and Haryana to protest against their chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh being charged with murder, police said.
Dera followers set afire a compartment each of the Ferozepur-Ludhiana Sutlej Express and two local passenger trains in Punjab, said a Northern Railway spokesman. They also damaged railway property at Tapa, Moga and Kalaiyat in Punjab.
Protesters torched six state-owned buses in Moga and stoned and damaged vehicles at Bathinda, Mansa, Talwandi Sabo and Bhagapurana in Punjab and at Kaithal, Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana.
A post office was set on fire at Talwandi Sabo in Bhatinda, and reports said two empty Haryana Roadways buses were also set afire. Dera followers blocked traffic on the Ambala-Hissar highway at Kaithal by squatting on the road.
Singh was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the February 22, 1991 murder of former dera manager Faqir Chand. Chand's body was never found and the CBI had conducted an inquiry into this on court orders.
Besides Singh, the CBI had booked four other members of the sect for murder, destroying evidence and hatching a criminal conspiracy.
Dera Sacha Sauda, which has a huge following all over the country, is headquartered at Sirsa town in Haryana.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥