The Punjab police found three torn pieces of the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, in Maleke village, Moga district, the fourth such incident to hit the state in the last month. Additional forces have been deployed to the district as a large number of people gathered. The police claimed that the villagers were not letting them collect the pages, the Press Trust of India reported.

The state has faced major protests and violence in the wake of the incidents of sacrilege. Two people were killed in clashes between the agitators and the police. The Punjab government transferred the police chief for failing to control the situation and handed the case over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.