Sikh Sword Attack in Queens Captured in Chaotic Video

The New York Daily News provides the above video from a sword fight on Sunday at the Baba Makhan Shah Lubana Sikh Center in Queens, where a rival gang enters during prayer and seemingly starts a scuffle, "like a scene out of West Side Story," according to the New York Post.

"We tried to open membership, and a group didn't want it," explained the temple's president Jarnail Singh. "They want to fight it." Ultimately, though, he blamed the police, who were guarding the temple during services, but failed to stop the mob.

"[NYPD officer John McCoy] let about 100 people inside with bats, swords and stucks to attack us," Singh said to the Post. McCoy said the group claimed they wanted to worship. "If you're going to pray, you're allowed inside," he said.

"I'm going to kill you," screamed one man before punching another in the face.

Seven people were arrested and arraigned on riot and assault charges.

[NYDN, NYP]

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4 comments
Tinku
Tinku

Shame on you idiots for doing all this drama in a Gurdwara. You have issue with each other, fight outside and leave people alone who have come to pray and find some peace. Shame on you idiots. It's another instance where india government is playing tricks behind the door to show Sikhs in bad light to keep world diverted away from active Sikh genocide taking place in india in last 27 years.

Tinku
Tinku

You don't need others killing us Sikhs. We are killing each other.

Inderjeet Singh
Inderjeet Singh

This video is completely biased and supports the Jarnail Singh‘s views. Jarnail Singh is a man who is simply just using his money to gain publicity and attention for all the wrong reasons. This man is trying anything and everything possible to keep his power in the temple even when his term was officially over on December 31st 2010. He is reporting false news which are completely biased. It is a merely a case of propaganda, in which he uses every resource he has to mislead the public. During this fight the security cameras of the Gurudwara were turned off by his people and the only camera there was his own, in which he used to support his side of the story. One minute of a video cannot show the 4 months of chaos which he caused and the whole year of all his financial mismanagements in the Gurudwara. In the video he shows the opposing side marching in, but it clearly does not show why the people were angry. If the cameras in the Gurudwara were not turned off by him, it would’ve shown why these people were angry. His side of the people had beaten a man earlier that morning which had caused anger from the other side. It is clearly shown in the video where the weapons were and the reasons they were placed there were for fighting not for self defense. They were under a white sheet where these people were supposedly ‘worshipping’ and someone is clearly handing the weapons out to fight. These people call them ‘instruments’ and make it seem like they were just lying there under a white blanket. The video is only a minute and it is obviously edited to support his own side. The people that are sitting there which claimed that they were ‘worshipping’ were all people hired from his side to fight. This man is doing everything he can to gain attention and it is taking him to very low levels. He pays all of these hired people to fight and provides them with alcohol from his liquor store (JFK Liquors located on Hillside Ave) Is this behavior acceptable in Sikhism? Do we want a man bringing in drunk people to our place of worship. He is responsible to for all the violence that is shown above. What is interesting to me is why Jarnail Singh doesn’t mention the fact that his people had beaten an innocent man that morning who came to the temple to pray and had just suggested that the two opposing sides work out things in a civilized manner. Did that man deserve to get beaten for suggesting that the two sides work out their differences? That is the reason for all the anger from the opposing side who came in. Jarnail Singh had already preplanned all of this to mislead the public. This is simply just a desperate attempt and his last hope to keep his power, since his attempt to take matters to court did not benefit him.The only reason Jarnail Singh refuses to give up his power is due to financial reasons. He has stolen money from the Gurudwara and has not returned people’s loans. He has also damaged the credits of the other cosigners of the temple and is not paying the mortgage of the Gurudwara. Where is this man getting all the money to pay for everything that he is doing?! It’s from the very temple that he is refusing to give up his power. Why wouldn’t the people be angry at him? Why else isn’t this man turning in all the financial information for the last year of his presidency. He is clearly hiding something and covering up his wrong-doings. Why should we let this man disrupt our community. The court has told him that he is no longer president and his proposition is was denied. His term ended last year, so why should we let a person like him become another dictator. Him and his desperate attempts to keep power are very humiliating to the Sikh community. The only reason this man is accusing the police is because they aren’t misled by a man who gave them trouble for the past few months. He is a low-life which will eventually be punished for his wrong-doings. My request to the public is that before taking sides and arguing about the whole situation know the facts and not base everything on a biased one-minute video.

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