Sant Rama Nand cremated, situation remains peaceful

Ballan (Jalandhar), June 4 (PTI) Dera Sachkhand leader
Sant Rama Nand, whose death in a shooting incident in Vienna
sparked off large-scale violence in India's northern state of
Punjab recently, was on Thursday cremated with full state
honours at the sect headquarters here amidst tight security.

An apparently unending stream of devotees braved the
scorching heat to turn up at the sect headquarters to pay
their last respects to the deputy sect head as his mortal
remains were kept at Satsang Bhawan for public viewing after
being flown in here in a chopper in the morning.

The area, about 15 kms from Jalandhar, was virtually
converted into a cantonment as on each and every point to the
entry towards Ballan, large posse of cops was deployed to
avert any untoward incident.

Brought by a special aircraft from Vienna to New Delhi
in the wee hours, Rama Nand's mortal remains were received by
Union Ministers Ambika Soni, Kumari Selja and Parneet Kaur
along with former Punjab Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia and
Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujaral, sources said. PTI RB