Attack by Nihangs: ASI's severed hand reattached at Chandigarh's PGIMER

In a surgery lasting over seven hours, doctors at the Chandigarh's PGIMER reattached a 50-year-old ASI's hand chopped off in an attack by a group of Nihangs in Punjab's Patiala on Sunday, officials said.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Harjeet Singh's hand was cut with a sword while three other Punjab policemen and a mandi official sustained injuries when the Nihangs attacked them after being asked to show curfew passes at a vegetable market in Patiala district.

The Punjab Police has arrested 11 people, including a woman, in connection with the attack which took place at 6.15 am in Sanaur town.

The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) said their Director Dr Jagat Ram had received a call regarding it from Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta at 7.45 am after which the emergency team at the trauma centre there was alerted.

According to the premiere institute, Prof Ramesh Sharma, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery, was given the task of the surgery.

"The replantation started around 10 am," PGIMER said, adding that the procedure took about seven and a half hours.

This was technically very complex and challenging surgery which has been successfully done, the institute said.

"It was evaluated at the end of surgery that the hand is viable, warm with good circulation. We pray to the god for his fast recovery," the PGIMER said.