Jalandhar, June 13: Nearly 150 people, including several women, locked themselves inside the Talhan Gurudwara today to prevent the Punjab government from taking control of it defying appeals by police to vacate the shrine. One of the Sewadars (volunteer) speaking to media over phone from inside Gurudwara Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh said that there were two drums of diesel lying inside and that many women have threatened self-immolation if the government "tried to evict them". Punjab government yesterday had taken control of the gurudwara from Damdami Taksal and appointed a receiver. Ten people from Dalit and Jat Sikh communities were arrested yesterday even as the row over the management of the shrine between the two communities continued.
SGPC president Kripal Singh Badungar has termed the appointment of receiver as "direct interference of the government in religious matters".

Badungar urged the congress government not to "play with fire which can go out of control and disturb the peace of the state".

SGPC executive member Sukhdev Singh Bhaur compared the appointment of a receiver by the government with the Jaito Morcha time (the pre-independence time when Britishers had appointed receiver to manage the gurudwaras affairs).
Bureau Report