Torn pages from two religious books as well as three prayer books were found abandoned in Ludhiana and Ferozepur districts, in fresh incidents of sacrilege in Punjab today.
A large contingent of police personnel was deployed in the two areas as a precautionary step after similar cases recently sparked unrest in Punjab.
In the first incident, the torn pages were found scattered by the roadside near Chander Nagar in Ludhiana.
SHO of Police Station-4, Dharam Pal, who reached the spot with a police party, said, "The torn pages of the holy books were lying on both sides of the road."
He said the pages were found scattered around a half-a- kilometre radius and added that police were taking the help of footage from CCTV cameras installed in various shops in the area in order to identify the culprits.
In the second such incident, three prayer books along with photographs of preachers were recovered from the periphery of Basti Bute Wali village at Zira sub-division of Ferozepur, around 25 Km from district headquarters today.
As soon as the matter was reported, senior police officials rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area, SSP Ferozepur, Hardyal Singh Mann said, adding that it seemed to be a handiwork of some miscreants with an attempt to create unrest amidst the people.
Police has registered a case against unknown persons and investigations have been launched into the incident.
Mann said that the police was recording the fingerprints traced from the spot and some material seized from the site have also been sent for forensic testing.
Punjab has seen over 10 incidents of alleged desecration of religious books over the last one month. Violent protests were held over these incidents, leading to the death of two persons and injuries to others.
