Internal fissures boil over: Scuffle breaks out at Mohali gurdwara after Nihang Sikhs return on bail

A celebration of legal reprieve for four Nihang Sikhs turned chaotic at a Sohana shrine, highlighting long-standing tensions within the fold.

The sanctum of the Darbar Hall at Gurdwara Singh Shaheedan in Mohali’s Sohana area, usually a site of quiet contemplation, erupted into a scene of disorder this Sunday. The incident, involving a public scuffle between two factions of Nihang Sikhs, broke out just as the community gathered to celebrate the return of four of their members who were recently granted bail.

These four individuals were among the group involved in the recent, widely reported Karnaprayag clash. That incident had drawn significant attention after a convoy of approximately 200 Nihang Sikhs, traveling from Chandigarh, allegedly breached police barricades at the Kulhal check post on the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border following a confrontation with local residents in Chamoli district.

Police response and current status

Local law enforcement moved quickly to restore order. Harsimrat Singh Chehtra, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) for Mohali, confirmed in a video statement that a team from the Sohana police station was dispatched immediately upon receiving reports of the altercation.

"The situation is currently completely peaceful," DSP Chehtra noted, adding that authorities are maintaining close contact with the gurdwara’s management. As of Sunday evening, no formal complaints had been filed with the police. While the administration is prepared to act in accordance with the law, they remain in a holding pattern until a formal grievance is registered.

Assessing the divide

Harjinder Singh Baidwan, President of the Gurdwara Sohana Sahib, was quick to contextualize the event. He attributed the outbreak of violence not to the specific legal victory of the four men, but to long-standing, pre-existing internal differences within the Nihang groups involved. According to Baidwan, these factions have a history of friction that has simmered for some time; this weekend, those private tensions simply boiled over in a public space.

Why it matters

The incident in Mohali serves as a stark reminder of how fragile internal cohesion can be within organized groups, especially when they are already under the public gaze. When a religious institution—intended to be a sanctuary—becomes the stage for factional disputes, it complicates the optics for the community at large.

For law enforcement, the challenge lies in balancing the sanctity of the gurdwara with the need to maintain public order. The lack of a formal complaint suggests a preference for resolving these matters internally, yet the public nature of the scuffle ensures that the police will continue to monitor the situation closely to prevent further escalation. The broader pattern here is one of high-visibility friction, where legal battles in other states are now intersecting with local, grassroots power struggles in Punjab.