A church was vandalised in Thakarpura village of Punjab’s Tarn Taran district by a group of unidentified persons on Wednesday morning, The Indian Express reported.

The Punjab Police said that the mob held the security guard captive at gunpoint and vandalised a statue of Jesus and his mother, Mary.

They also set on fire a car belonging to the priest of the church, according to NDTV. The incident was recorded on CCTV camera.

“The head of a holy statue was taken away,” an unidentified official of the Punjab Police said, according to The Indian Express. “We are investigating the matter. The culprits will be arrested soon.”

The incident came a day after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, issued a statement against the alleged conversions by Christian missionaries, NDTV reported.

Giani Harpreet Singh, the jathedar, or clergy leader, of the Akal Takht, had also urged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to ban religious conversions in the state.

“So-called Christian missionaries have been forcibly converting Sikhs through fraudulent practices,” Singh had said, according to NDTV. “Sikhs and Hindus of Punjab are being misled and converted. This is happening right under the government’s nose.”

Singh had demanded withdrawing the first information report filed against Nihang leader Baba Major Singh and his 150 unknown aides, who had allegedly disrupted a Christian congregation at Daduana village in Amritsar district on August 28, according to The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, the chief minister has ordered the state’s director general of police to start an investigation, PTI reported.

“This is a highly condemnable incident and severest action must be taken against the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” he said. “This incident is a handiwork of the forces inimical to the peace, prosperity and progress of the state.”

Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, chief of the Congress’ Punjab unit, said that the vandalism was a deliberate attempt to divide society.

A case has been registered under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 452 (house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code, said Station House Officer (Patti Sadar) Sukhbir Singh.