RUDRAPRAYAG (Gurpreet Singh): A tense standoff continued into its second day at the Nagrasu gurdwara along the Badrinath Highway after a group of armed Nihang Sikhs allegedly stormed the shrine, vandalised parts of the property, and took a Sikh devotee hostage on the rooftop. The group, armed with spears, swords, axes, and kirpans, barricaded themselves on the third floor and terrace of the shrine on Saturday evening to demand the immediate release of four faction members arrested after a violent clash in Chamoli last week.
The unfolding crisis prompted a massive deployment of the Uttarakhand Police, the Provincial Armed Constabulary, and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police to secure the perimeters of the shrine, which sits strategically between Rudraprayag and Gauchar as a major transit stop for pilgrims visiting Sri Hemkund Sahib. Senior administrative officials, including District Magistrate Vishal Mishra, Superintendent of Police Niharika Tomar, and the Garhwal Commissioner, rushed to the site to initiate negotiations. To maintain public order and counter volatile rumors, authorities suspended internet services within a 15-kilometre radius of the area and enforced strict prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita in sensitive zones until June 27.
According to gurdwara management authorities, represented by Sardar Beant Singh, the confrontation began when the arriving group from Mohali, Punjab, demanded that 50 to 60 rooms be arranged immediately to accommodate incoming protesters planning a massive sit-in demonstration. When the shrine administrators conveyed their inability to fulfill the abrupt request, the group allegedly resorted to physical violence, attacked the local sevadars, and forced an elderly devotee up to the rooftop to serve as human leverage. The occupiers have explicitly warned security forces against initiating any tactical or forceful interventions to clear the building.
The roots of the standoff trace back to a June 16 altercation in the Karnaprayag market in Chamoli, which began as a parking dispute near a local hotel. A passing convoy of Nihang pilgrims returning from Hemkund Sahib engaged in a heated argument with local residents that rapidly escalated into violence, leaving four locals and one pilgrim injured from sword strikes. Following the subsequent arrest of four Mohali-based pilgrims, sympathetic Nihang groups accused the Uttarakhand administration of conducting a one-sided investigation, culminating in Saturday’s forced occupation at Nagrasu. While SP Niharika Tomar has reportedly offered the holed-up individuals safe passage back to Punjab in exchange for a peaceful surrender and the safe release of the hostage, the armed group remains entrenched on the rooftop as the state government orders an independent inquiry under the Inspector General of Police to resolve the issue.
