A 19-year-old man was beaten to death after he allegedly tore some pages of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs, at a gurdwara in Punjab’s Ferozepur on Saturday.

Bakshish Singh committed the alleged sacrilege at Gurdwara Baba Bir Singh in Bandala village, after which an angry crowd caught and thrashed him, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sukhwinder Singh said.

A police case has been filed against the man for the alleged sacrilege.

He was mentally challenged and had been on medication for two years, claimed his father Lakhwinder Singh, calling on the police to register a case against those who killed his son.

The locals say Bakshish had never visited the gurdwara before.

He reportedly tried to run away after committing the sacrilege and was caught by locals. As the news of the alleged incident spread, villagers gathered at the gurdwara and beat him.

A video from the site showed a group of men surrounding Bakshish as he sat bleeding with his hands tied. The police later took him to a private hospital, but he had died by then.

The situation is now under control, said DSP Singh.

Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh said the law was not successful in stopping sacrilege incidents and Bakshish’s death was a reaction to the failure to punish the culprits.

The Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, also called on the Sikh community not to allow his last rites at any gurdwara and socially and religiously boycott his family. He said people are forced to seek justice on their own when the rule of law “fails miserably in performing its duty”.

J&K People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone said that BJP would have faced public rejection for scrapping article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir if it had contested polls in the Valley.

Sajad Lone, who is being accused of being BJP’s “team B” in the Valley, denied having any association with the party and blamed Omar Abdullah for helping BJP by creating a false narrative.

Mr Lone said the parliament election was the first test of “moral acceptance or rejection” of BJPs decision on Article 370 and they chose not field any candidate to avoid facing the defeat.

“I had this idea a year ago that BJP will not field candidates for parliament elections in Kashmir because it’s the first election after abrogation of Article 370,” said Mr Lone.

“Everyone knew they will not field candidates because if they will get just one percent vote. It would have meant a moral rejection. So they made a clever move not to field candidate” said Sajad Lone.

Mr Lone said that BJP is a peripheral party in Kashmir and blamed Omar Abdullah for helping BJP like several other Muslim leaders in the country.

“There are several Muslim leaders in the country who work for BJP, Omar Abdullah has also been hired by BJP and he’s terming every opponent of National Conference as B team of BJP in Kashmir,” he said.

The BJP, meanwhile, said that it is the “kingmaker” and without their support no one can win parliament elections in the Valley.

“We are the kingmakers. We have support of people in every part of the Valley and without our support no party can win these elections” said Ravindra Raina, BJP’s J&K President.

Top BJP leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah have appealed people in Kashmir to vote for any candidate who fights against National Conference and the PDP.

Mr Lone who is contesting from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat against Omar Abdullah has sought an apology from National Conference leader for making “false” allegation against him about his links with BJP

Mr Abdullah had accused Sajad Lone of publicly accepting that he’s part of the BJP.

“If Omar Abdullah is true in his claim that I have made a statement of being part of BJP, let him show the clip. I am ready to tender a public apology. And if this is false, then he should apologise,” said Mr Lone

On Saturday, police started revisiting the probe in last year’s school bomb hoaxes, fishing for technical leads that could either be developed or used in the latest case. The special probe team has had a relook at two cases that police managed to solve in which both the mail senders had used Gmail IDs and for which Google had shared internet protocol details facilitating the solving of the cases.