AMRITSAR, India (October 6, 2001 11:57 a.m. EDT) - Police said thousands of Sikhs blocked highways and shut down schools, shops and businesses across northern Punjab state on Saturday, protesting the burning of copies of their religious book.
The protesters didn't allow any intercity bus to enter the state capital, Chandigarh, for nearly six hours.
Most shops near the Golden Temple, the Sikh community's holiest shrine, in northern Amritsar city downed their shutters. Hundreds of policemen took positions to avoid any violence.
Sikh leaders, including Jagdev Singh Talwandi, demanded the arrest of Baba Piara Singh Bhaniara, a rival Sekh leader whom they accused of burning a dozen copies of the religious book, "Guru Granth Sahib," two weeks ago.
Talwandi is the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee, a religious body that runs Sikh shrines in India and abroad.
Bhaniara has annoyed the Sikh community by launching a rival sect and writing a religious book in Trakhan Majra, a village in Ropar district, 115 miles southeast of Amritsar, the Sikhs' sacred city.
Sikhs comprise less than 2 percent of India's more than 1 billion people.