Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A Christian woman aged 55 was hacked to death in Punjab by some unidentified men, for allegedly having desecrated the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred text of the Sikh religion. The victim's name was Balwinder Kaur and she suffered from mental retardation. Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar says: "God, forgive them for they know not what they do. All the evidence indicates that there is persecution in Punjab ".
The murder took place on 11 September in the village of Veroke, around 12:30 (local time). The attackers gathered outside the house of the woman, knocked on the front door, dragged her out and struck her several times with the ax. Superintendent of Amritsar Police, Harkamal Khakh Preet Singh, said that Kaur bled to death from her injuries.
Investigations have confirmed that she endured agony for four hours before dying. The police said that the assailants inflicted numerous wounds below the knee, maybe to slow her death, when they "could have mortally injured her right away."
In 2015 the woman suffered an accidental electric shock, which provoked her mental retardation.
Police suspect that Sikh radicals are behind the killing. Last year Kaur was reported to police for having entered a gurudwara (Sikh place of worship) in her slippers.
