"Absolutely Unacceptable": Amarinder Singh On Punjab Mob Killings

SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami told NDTV on Monday that :"we cannot bluntly condemn the incident (the mob killings)..."

Amarinder Singh - the former Punjab Chief Minister - is the first major political leader to condemn the vigilante killing of two men over claims of religious sacrilege at gurdwaras in Amritsar and Kapurthala.Mr Singh called the murder of the two men "illegal... absolutely unacceptable".

"Sacrilege is wrong but it is also wrong to kill a person. What is this way? There is the law. If you take the accused to the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a pan-national organization responsible for the management of gurudwaras) office, interrogate and kill him... Is this the way? This is illegal and this is absolutely unacceptable," the ex-Congress leader was quoted by PTI.

"There is no justification for mob lynching whatsoever... it is condemnable," Mr Singh said.

Asked if the killings were a sign of frustration within the Sikh community over unresolved tension related to the 2015 sacrilege incidents, Amarinder Singh defended his track-record in the matter.