Protests broke out today in the city after a few pages of a holy book of the Shiks were found floating in a canal at Basti Shekh here, police said.
A few organisations, which staged a protest at the Kapurthala Chowk alleged desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. Security in the city has been tightened to thwart any untoward incident, they added.
The torn pages were picked from the canal and have been kept at a local Gurudwara.
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Meanwhile, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) strongly condemned the alleged sacrilege of the holy book.
State Convenor of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Gurpreet Singh Waraich (Ghuggi) said the incident indicates a "deep-rooted conspiracy to disturb peace in Punjab".
"It is highly deplorable, condemnable and unfortunate that some persons have gone religiously bankrupt and did such a heinous crime, which is beyond pardonable," he said, adding it is the responsibly of the government to nab such persons and expose them before the public.
"Had the government been serious to solve these cases and nab the culprits in earlier cases, nobody could have dared to do such a condemnable act again," Waraich said.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh in a statement issued here said it was an act of provocation aimed at disturbing the peace and communal harmony in the state.
Blaming Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for his "failure" to act in similar incidents earlier, the PCC president alleged, "Once the culprits were allowed to go scot-free, they naturally got emboldened to commit more such acts".
