The Sikligars are nomadic community traditionally involved in polishing weapons who fled invading armies from the western frontiers during medieval centuries and subsequently disguised themselves.
Picture for representation. (Getty Images)
And these are no ordinary locksmiths. Perhaps the best in their profession from Sikligars community, a hundred of these are now camping at Sirsa to open the vaults in the deepest recesses of Guru Ram Rahim Singh’s forbidden city.
The Sikligars are nomadic community traditionally involved in polishing weapons who fled invading armies from the western frontiers during medieval centuries and subsequently disguised themselves.
Nowadays, the Sikligars make spades, sickles, sieves and iron baskets besides working at construction sites – cutting and tying iron bars.
The community is scattered in regions of Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab. In Haryana, the group consists partly of Hindus, and partly Sikh natives; in Gujarat, they are Hindus and in Punjab, they live under the Sikh identity with Gujarati as their common mode of communication.
A mammoth exercise to carry out “sanitisation” of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect headquarters in Sirsa was underway on Friday with security forces and various government departments coordinating closely amid tight security.
The entire process will be video-graphed and is being overseen by retired District and Sessions Judge, AKS Pawar, who was appointed as Court Commissioner by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday.
Curfew remains enforced on the road leading to the Dera headquarters. No unauthorised person was being allowed to go inside Dera premises.
A large number of vehicles including police buses and paramilitary vehicles, Quick Reaction Team vehicles, bomb disposal squad and anti-sabotage team vehicles, carrying cops and paramilitary personnel and vehicles of the district administration carrying officials drawn from various government departments made their way inside the Dera premises in the morning, officials said.
Source: News18