Police firing at Gurdwara Paonta Sahib, 22 May 1964

Who: Nihang Sikhs holding the gurdwara, whom The Tribune identifies as Singhs of the Misl Shaheedan Tarna Dal; the Deputy Commissioner of Nahan and an armed police contingent; and a mahant who was in dispute with the Nihangs over the shrine.

What: Gurmit Singh says the Deputy Commissioner went to Gurdwara Paonta Sahib on 22 May 1964 to hand it to an official receiver, in carrying out a civil court order in a case between a mahant and the Nihangs. The Nihang leader, Harbhajan Singh, was arrested and his companions were told to leave, but refused because an akhand path was in progress. The Deputy Commissioner ordered the police to force the gates. Gurmit Singh says they entered wearing shoes and with cigarettes in their pockets, and that when a Nihang at the entrance struck some constables with a chakkar, the Deputy Commissioner, as magistrate, ordered the police to fire.

The counts are given by the Sikh side. Gurmit Singh says the reciter of the Guru Granth Sahib was shot dead, that three bodies were found, twelve Nihangs were missing and feared shot, and many were injured, and that the shrine was sealed for two days. The SGPC's memorandum to the Congress president, K. Kamaraj, on 10 September 1964 says 11 Nihang Sikhs were killed and the Holy Book was desecrated and removed. The Tribune, reporting an SGPC commemoration in 2022, also says 11 Singhs of the Misl Shaheedan Tarna Dal were martyred in the struggle to free the gurdwara from mahants; Baba Nihal Singh, seriously injured in the struggle, was given the title "Jinda Shaheed" (living martyr).

Where: Gurdwara Paonta Sahib on the Yamuna in Sirmur (Nahan) district of Himachal Pradesh. Grewal says Guru Gobind Singh settled at Paunta in 1685 at the invitation of the chief of Sirmur, and left in 1689 to found Anandpur.

Why it mattered: Both Akali factions formed a joint action committee, and the Government appointed a judge of the Allahabad High Court to inquire (Gurmit Singh). The SGPC memorandum records that the imprisoned Nihangs were released and a high-power inquiry instituted, and calls for an all-India Gurdwara Act so that state governments could not interfere with the historic shrines. In August 1965 Sant Fateh Singh told Prime Minister Shastri that the Sikhs themselves had cleaned the blood from the floor and that the judge's report took a communal attitude. Gurmit Singh says the commission reported against the Sikhs although the police sacrilege was obvious. Sangat Singh says the two Akali factions temporarily united to express the community's resentment at what he calls the Paonta Sahib sacrilege.