Two Indian men were shot dead by some unidentified men while they were leaving from a gurudwara at Covo in the Italian province of Bergamo, reported local media on Sunday. The incident had taken place on Friday just before the midnight in the square in front of the Gurdwara Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, which falls in the industrial area of the town.
The deceased were identified as Raginder Singh and Gurmit Singh. While Raginder was a resident of Covo, Gurmit was from Agnadello. Both men were 48-year-old. Gurmit is survived by a wife and two children. Another person was likely injured but his identity was not revealed.ย
As per a report by La Sicilia, the unidentified assailants approached Raginder and Gurmit, and fired at them before fleeing in a car. The newspaper claimed that the killing happened due to a brawl which escalated. As many as ten shell casings were collected by the authorities from the site of the incident.
A coldly planned execution?
The newspaper said the case is now being investigated by the Bergamo Investigative Unit, which is investigating the hypothesis of a “coldly planned execution”. Meanwhile, an eyewitness, Govindpa Singh, said that the attacker was an Indian from Antegnate, who used to visit the gurudwara regularly.
“If these statements are corroborated, the idea of a spontaneous action would give way to a settling of scores or a conflict that has developed within the relational network of the Sikh diaspora,” La Sicilia reported.
The incident has left the locals in shock, but Covo Mayor Andrea Cappelletti has tried to allay those fears and stated that the local Sikh community are ‘peaceful’ and had never caused any public order issues in the past 15 years. The authorities are now conducting a probe about the killings, and have sent the bodies for autopsy to Pavia. They are also examining the CCTV footage and interrogating the locals for details about the incident.