Nihang group agrees not to take herd of cows to Sultanpur Lodhi

Sultanpur Lodhi: After three days of intense negotiations, Nihangs goading a herd of 8,000 cows, who were adamant on taking these to Sultanpur Lodhi but were stopped at a distance of around 20km, outside village Fattudhinga, agreed to return.

Nihangs had been insisting that they had been coming to the historic town along with the herd during Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary.

They proceeded towards the town just after the mega events to celebrate the 550th Parkash Purb were over. This led to concern in district administration officials who feared that such a large number of cattle head would not just make the town and surroundings unclean, but would also damage newly planted saplings and plants.

The Nihangs with the herd were stopped at Fattudhinga and the cows were goaded inside the Guru Nanak Dev University College Fattudhinga, which is now littered with cow dung and most of its plants have also been trampled. The officials wanted them to bypass the town, but they refused.

On Sunday, there was heavy deployment of police while Kapurthala senior superintendent of police Satinder Singh and ADC (general) Rahul Chaba continued the attempts to persuade them not to enter the town. They argued that devotees were still coming to the town in big numbers and cows could harm them. “They have agreed to return through a different route and would start on Monday morning,” SSP said on Sunday evening.

It is learnt that Nihangs were arguing that villagers on their route used to arrange fodder for the cows. To this, the administration arranged assurance from the village panchayats that they would transport the fodder to them on their way. During their stay here also people from different villages brought fodder for the cows.

The herd of abandoned cows was being looked after by Baba Pala Singh, a Nihang, who died sometime ago and later members of his group has been continuing looking after the herd. A few months ago, a clash had taken place between this group and members of Damdami Taksal near latter’s headquarters in Chowk Mehta after the herd entered the surrounding fields.