Wedding guests face grudge stabbing, shooting outside Ludhiana’s civil hospital.

Ludhiana: Five men are in hospital after a gang — armed with knives and a newly licensed pistol — turned a hospital car park into a shooting gallery over a petty social snub, of being dropped from a pilgrimage.That grudge sparked a wee-hour chain of violence that started on Tuesday at a wedding and ended outside civil hospital, leaving a man with a bullet in his leg and four others with slash wounds. Police claim that four men — Karanjeet Singh, Sahil, Mohit, and Varun — had reached the hospital for medical examinations while fleeing for safety following an initial scuffle in the Jawahar Nagar area.As the group exited the facility, the rivals intercepted and attacked them for a second time. In the melee, a fifth man, Dharminder of Abdullapur Basti, sustained a gunshot wound to his right leg. Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Dharminder Kumar, head of the Janakpuri police post, claimed that: "The gang attacked them with knives once more."The dispute reportedly traces back to an annual bus pilgrimage to Baba Balaknath last year. Police investigations suggest that a friend of the accused had caused a disturbance during that trip, so the organisers chose to drop him from this year's pilgrimage. The man's gang allegedly believed Mohit was responsible for blacklisting their friend.The tension snapped at 2.30am on Tuesday. Sahil's family were in a ‘Jaago' night traditional Punjabi pre-wedding ceremony when Mohit and his friends left the festivities to collect mattresses for guests. Seven men — Sooraj Bhatti, Prakash Bhinda, Saurav, Chirag, Karan Negi, Rohit, and Shiva, allegedly intercepted them.Escalation to GunfireWhile four of the targeted men suffered slash wounds, the situation turned nearly fatal when Sooraj Bhatti allegedly produced a recently acquired .45-bore licensed pistol. Police claim Bhatti fired at least four rounds at the group, hitting Dharminder in the leg.The Division Number 2 police registered a first-information report (FIR) against the seven named suspects on charges of attempted murder. "The accused and the injured are mostly from the same neighbourhood," ASI Dharminder Kumar said. A hunt is on for the accused.