Tension was brewing in the village since past couple of days with a Dera follower Lily, a patwari with the Irrigation Department, allegedly insisting on holding satsang despite protests by Sikh groups.

On Sunday, things had threatened to take a turn for the worse but the police intervened and pacified both the groups. Police personnel were posted outside Lily’s house on Sunday.

The fracas broke out when Lily allegedly started beating a drum inside his house to announce the satsang around 6.30 am on Monday.

A police official said a villager passing by heard this and informed other villagers who became furious and headed towards Lily’s house.

Although the police tried to douse the spark, things were soon out of control and there was a clash, which even injured Boha SHO Gurdeep Singh. “The moment we heard the drum beats, we went inside Lily’s house and asked him to stop. But before we could do anything, a crowd had gathered outside the house with stones and sharp-edged weapons,” said police .

According to the police, Nirmala Devi, one of Lily’s relatives tried to repulse the attack by throwing acid on the Sikhs from the rooftop. Some of the acid also fell on the SHO.

Mansa Deputy Commissioner S S Dhillon and SSP Ram Singh visited Alampur Mandra to take stock of the situation. They also went to the civil hospital.

Later, there was heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces in the village and around the hospital where armed supporters from both the sides gathered in large numbers.

The doctors, attending to the injured, said they were out of danger, and two of them -- Amrik Singh and Bog Singh -- were referred to a hospital in Patiala “on request”. The Mansa police have registered a case under Sections 307, 148, 149 and 324 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). against as many as 18 persons.