Chandigarh: In yet another shocking incident of targeted killing in Punjab in less than a week’s time, an accused of 2015 sacrilege incident, who was out on bail and had Punjab police security cover, was shot dead by five motorcycle-borne assailants in Kotkapura town of Faridkot district Thursday morning.

The victim, Pardeep Singh, a follower of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda was in his dairy shop on Hari Nau road around 7 am when five assailants came on two motorcycles, fired at least 20 shots and killed him on the spot before fleeing within seconds.

Pardeep died on the spot, his gunman and another shopkeeper sustained bullet injuries

A CCTV footage showed the five men arriving on the spot, two of them entering Pardeep’s shop and the remaining three waiting outside. After firing at Pardeep and the gunman, the shooters rushed out after which the three men standing outside the shop also began opening fire and fleeing the spot.

The police said that while Pardeep died on the spot, his gunman and another shopkeeper sustained bullet injuries and were undergoing treatment at a hospital. The police said that Pardeep had three gunmen as his security cover in view of the threat perception to Pardeep, though one of them was with him at the time of the crime.

Pardeep is the seventh Dera follower to have been killed since the sacrilege incidents of 2015 in Faridkot district and the second targeted killing in less than a week in Punjab after Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri’s November 4 murder during a protest in Amritsar.

The most shocking aspect of both the sensational crimes was that both the victims had Punjab police protection and were killed despite it.

Pardeep was granted bail in the sacrilege cases on August 3, 2021. The Punjab police had named him an accused in both cases and presented chargesheets against Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and followers, including Pardeep.

Meanwhile, Dera Sacha Sauda, Punjab, management committee member Harcharan Singh said it was shocking that Pardeep was killed despite the security cover given by Punjab police.

Demanding an inquiry into the failure of the police to protect Pardeep despite the threat to his life, he said that the police administration owed an explanation as to how seven Dera followers had been killed since 2016. 

Others murdered were Gurdev Singh in 2016, Satpal and his son Ramesh in 2017, Mahinderpal Bittu in Nabha Jail in 2019, Manohar Lal in 2020 and Charan Dass in 2021.

GOLDY BRAR TAKES RESPONSIBILITY

Meanwhile, soon after the incident, Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which had also claimed to have carried out the brutal murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala in May this year, claimed responsibility for Pardeep’s murder in a social media post that however, had yet not been verified as yet though.

Shiv Sena leader Rahul Shetty shot dead in Lonavala in broad daylight