Ghaziabad (UP), Aug 11 (PTI) Members of Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha took out a protest rally here on Wednesday to condemn the attack on a priest while he was asleep in the premises of Dasna Devi Mandir here.

The protesters submitted a memorandum seeking President Ram Nath Kovind's intervention in the matter.

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Temple priest Naresh Anand, who hails from Samastipur district of Bihar, was allegedly attacked by a paper-cutter on Tuesday while he was sleeping in the temple's premises, resulting in injuries to his throat and stomach.

"This is an attack on Hindu religion and has endangered Hindutva, therefore security of the temples and priests must be enhanced," B K Sharma, the national spokesman of Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha, said in the memorandum.

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Yati Narsingha Saraswati, the chief priest of the temple, claimed that the attack was originally aimed at him, but the assailants mistook Naresh Anand for him because of "similarity in physique".

In the light of the matter, SSP Amit Pathak has suspended security guard commander (head constable) Arvind Kumar and constable Dhanesh Singh for "dereliction of duty".

Departmental inquiries have also been set up against them, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Iraj Raja added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)