Tension continued to prevail in Pathankot on Saturday after a school management razed a portion of a gurdwara located on the Mission Road area on Friday.
Sikhs and local residents protested against the action on Sunday and demanded registration of criminal cases against the people involved in the act.
The protesters headed by SS Bawa, president, local traders union and LR Sodhi, general secretary national vyopar mandal on Saturday took out a protest march here.
The district administration tried to pacify the agitators, who were seeking registration of an FIR in the matter.
They alleged that the shrine was demolished by the management committee of Harkrishan Public School which controlled the affairs of the shrine as it wanted to construct a shopping mall.
The Pathankot police, acting on intelligence inputs, also took 14 members of the Satkar Committee into preventive custody.
Security has been tightened in the area to prevent any untoward incident. A committee has been formed to probe the allegations which will submit its report within four days.
“We have appealed the people to stay calm,” Deputy Commissioner, Pathankot, Sukhwinder Singh said.
Meanwhile, the school Principal Massa Singh said the structure was old and was about to crumble.
He said that the school management will soon construct a new religious structure on the same land.
Kirpal Singh, the caretaker of the Gurdwara, claimed, “The school management has demolished the gurdwara to join its land with the school. The Gurdwara managers and the school are locked in tussle over the ownership and possession of the land on which the Gurdwara stood with the next hearing in the district court on September 21. It is intended to grab the land.”
There is a dispute between the shrine managers and school management over a piece of land. The matter is in the court.