Dera sacha sauda case: A day later, horror tales

PANCHAKULA: A smoke-filled skyline, cries for help and men and women dropping dead after scaling walls. These were the sights city residents saw outside their houses in sectors 2 and 4 when violence erupted after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet

Ram Rahim Singh

was held guilty on Friday.

“I watched two

dera

women followers pelting stones right in front of my house. Seconds later, I heard gunshots and both of them fell down. I started trembling. For many minutes, I kept thinking if it was real,” said Mohit Sangwan, 32, a resident of Sector 2. “There was smoke billowing and I heard gunshots for at least 10 minutes. I still get goosebumps by merely thinking about it,” he added.

A panicked Neelam Gupta was bolting the doors of her house in Sector 4 when she saw dera followers climb her wall. “I went mad with fear. I was crying and shouting for help as I saw these men climb the wall of my house. Suddenly, I heard a gunshot and this man fell down. He was dead in front of my eyes. I almost fainted with shock and fear,” said Neelam.

“I saw hundreds of people carrying wooden sticks and stones in their hands and running towards our sector. I shouted and asked my family members to shut the doors immediately. Many dera followers scaled the wall of my house. I felt so scared I can’t even tell you,” said Rupesh Girhotra, 47, a businessman and a resident of Sector 4. “Those 15-20 minutes were the most horrible of my life,” he added.

Dera followers, who were running for cover after cops opened fire, tried to get inside houses by jumping over walls and breaking open doors when they were refused entry by scared residents.

For almost half an hour, screams of residents asking for help could be heard from various corners in these two sectors amid the sound of gunfire.

“Around 8-10 people knocked at the door of my house and asked to get them inside to save them from cops. When I refused, they got enraged and attempted to brake the front door of my house. Fortunately, cops managed to stop them. It was so scary for the family,” said Subhash Kumar, a local trader and a resident of Sector 4.