Thread: 12 dead after Indian guru’s rape conviction triggers riots

Looks like there is more to come!!

12 dead after Indian guru’s rape conviction triggers riots



PANCHKULA, India - Mobs rampaged across a north Indian town, leaving 12 people dead and buildings in flames, after a court declared a quasi-religious sect leader guilty of raping two of his followers, according to police and a hospital doctor.
Police used water cannon in an attempt to disperse the crowd. More than 15,000 paramilitary troops and police officers, some on horseback, were deployed in the town of Panchkula.
The violence so far had left 12 dead and more than 100 injured, according to Dr. V.K. Bansal, chief medical officer at the state-run Panchkula’s Civil Hospital.
Mobs set fire to government buildings, and attacked police and TV journalists, smashing the windshields of media vans and breaking broadcast equipment.
The special court had announced the guilty verdict Friday after hearing closing arguments in the 15-year-old case against the guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan.
Ram Rahim Singh — who had denied the charges of raping the two women at his ashram in 2002 — was taken into custody and would be housed in a jailhouse in the nearby town of Rohtak in Haryana state until his Aug. 28 sentencing hearing, prosecutor H.P.S. Verma said.
Panchkula administrators had feared that a guilty verdict would trigger violence among the tens of thousands of followers who had camped overnight awaiting the verdict.
Violence also broke out in several places across the neighboring states of Haryana and Punjab, police said. Railway stations in the towns of Malout and Balluana were ablaze, and two coaches of an empty train parked in New Delhi’s Anand Vihar station were also set on fire.
Angry mobs also attacked police in the town of Sirsa, where the guru’s ashram is located, according to a local police control room.
The guru’s Dera Sacha Sauda sect claims to have some 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It has also taken up social causes such as organizing the weddings of poor couples.
Such sects have huge followings in India. It’s not unusual for leaders to have small, heavily armed private militias protecting them.
When the guru left his ashram in Sirsa early Friday for the hearing, he was accompanied by a 100-vehicle convoy.
Police had erected heavy metal barricades topped with barbed wire along main roads in the town, a quiet residential suburb of Chandigarh, which is the common capital of Haryana and Punjab states.
“We are prepared to deal with any situation, but are confident that adequate measures have been put in place,” said B. S. Sandhu, a top Haryana police official, before the verdict was read.
Army soldiers planned to march later Friday through the streets to garner a sense of security, Sandhu said.
Authorities ordered Internet and cellphone services shut down across both Haryana and Punjab as a security precaution.
Train services were canceled through the area, leading to railway delays across north India. Schools and colleges were closed.
The case was tried in a special court run by India’s top agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Such cases have prompted public violence in the past.
Clashes in 2007 between the Dera Sacha Sauda followers and members of the Sikh faith left at least three people dead in north India.
In 2014, six people were killed when followers of another religious leader, guru Rampal, fought pitched battles with police who were attempting to arrest him for contempt of court after he repeatedly failed to appear in court in connection with a murder trial.
In a televised appeal on Thursday, Ram Rahim Singh had asked his supporters not to resort to violence, but some said they would not tolerate a verdict that went against their leader.
“I consider guru-ji to be only next to God,” farmer Malkit Singh said as he squatted on the ground in a Panchkula park, saying Ram Rahim Singh had cured him of a decadelong addiction to drugs.
“There is a God above,” he said. “Our guru-ji follows the path of truth.”


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ape/600779001/


Great video

Holy fuck!

Well rape is one of their national sports, I'd imagine they'd go ape if Tendulkar got convicted as well.

At least 23 people have been killed in violent protests over the rape conviction of a popular religious leader in north India.

The victims are believed to be Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's followers. Angry supporters rampaged through Panchkula town, near Chandigarh.
About 2,500 of Singh's followers have been arrested, police said.

Earlier, his devotees smashed cars and set media vans alight, saying he was innocent.

More than 200,000 of his followers had flocked to the Chandigarh area ahead of Friday's verdict.

Singh, who says he has millions of disciples, was found guilty of raping two women at the headquarters of his sect, known as Dera Sacha Sauda, in 2002.

Thousands of army, police and paramilitary forces were deployed. They fired tear-gas canisters and water cannon into the crowd to try to restore control, says the BBC's Ravinder Singh Robin in Panchkula.

However, the region's police chief BS Sandhu said the violence was now under control.

Curfews have been imposed in several areas of Chandigarh city and across the state of Punjab, and internet services were suspended.

Violence also spread to the capital, Delhi, where two train coaches were set on fire, according to reports.

Singh, 50, was taken into protective custody by the army following the conviction.
The court is expected to sentence him on Monday.


Who is Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh?



Controversial leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, which claims to have 60 million followers around the world

Took over the sect - which describes itself as "a non-profit social welfare and spiritual organisation" - when he was 23

Performs at rock concerts, acts in films and even has his own line of food products
Known as "rockstar baba" and "guru of bling" because of his shiny, colourful clothes

Has been accused of mocking Sikh and Hindu figures

Has been investigated for murder and rape, charges he denies

Has been accused of forcing followers to undergo castration to "get closer to god"


Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticised his counterpart in the state of Haryana for allowing so many of Singh's followers to travel to Chandigarh.

Chandigarh is the capital of both states. The border between the two states has been sealed.

Singh had arrived at court in Panchkula, near Chandigarh, from his ashram in Haryana in a convoy of more than 100 vehicles.

Schools and offices in the area were closed, trains were stopped, roads were blocked and three stadiums were set aside as makeshift prisons in case of trouble, officials said.

India guru rape case: 23 die in unrest as Ram Rahim Singh convicted - BBC News

Originally Posted by misskit

Has been accused of forcing followers to undergo castration to "get closer to god"

That reminds me of the looney sect in the USA in which some followers had their nipples, navels, and ....some of them.... their genitals removed.

And the monkey Brexshitters, Davis, Johnson and Fox are queuing up to deal with these savages in replacement of the EU millions because "the British have shared values" in much the same way that creepy little weirdo Fox described Duterte and his murderous crew.

^ Jesus christ you need to take some pills for your Irritable Brexit Syndrome, you seem to be a politically incontinent EU-cult member - how else could you consider the likes of Drunker and "Refugees Welcome" Mental Merkel, Guy Vercockrot somehow any better?! Your attitude to the "savages" really does let the mask slip on the underlying racism of the EU.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

She's beautiful... is she the Taylor Swift of the subcontinent?

Sigh! I reiterate ~ "People, and their god-damned organized religions", despite a 7,000 year (arrogantly-claimed) Human Growth and Devilopmental history, and that's professed to be above their belt-lines, no less.