The sensitive areas, including Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala and Ludhiana are under the close vigil of paramilitary forces and the state police.
CHANDIGARH: After six days of sectarian violence that left one person killed and over 100 injured, Punjab was limping back to normalcy today with no major incidents of violence reported from anywhere in the state but protests and road blockade continued in some places.
Hundreds of activists of several Sikh organisations blocked the national highway and the railway line connecting Jalandhar and Amritsar for over three hours in Subhanpur area at Kapurthala demanding the arrest of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Guremeet Ram Rahim Singh.
Movement of ten trains including the Amritsar-New Delhi express was affected.
Over 200 sikhs staged a demonstration in Kohal vilage in Ludhiana district. TheY were however not allowed to proceed near the Dera.
In Barnala locality of Sangrur district, Sikhs burnt the effigies of the Dera chief and set afire a shop besides blocking vehicular movement at some places. Police arrested about a dozen persons when they tried to set afire a house in Sunam, where a person was killed outside the Dera Sacha Sauda branch on Thursday.
Sensitive areas including Bathinda, Sangrur, Patiala and Ludhiana which form part of the Malwa region of the state are under close vigil of paramilitary forces and the state police, officials said here.
IG (Zonal), Patiala, N K Tiwari told PTI over phone here that the situation in the state was "very peaceful".
In Jalandhar, the bandh called by several Sikh organisations was peaceful with no incidents of violence reported. All commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed but banks remained open.
At Subhajpur railway crossing in Jalandhar, few protestors tried to stop a train but were prevented following heavy police deployment.
However, an uneasy calm continued to prevail at the headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda at Sirsa in neighbouring Haryana.
The violence following the standoff between the Sikh groups and Dera Sacha Sauda claimed its first casualty in the police with Naresh Kumar,Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP) of Bhatinda, which witnessed maximum trouble, being transferred to an insignificant post.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding an appeal by major political parties, including ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), BJP and opposition Congress to the people of the state to maintain peace and communal harmony, the stand off between head of Dera Sacha Sauda and key religious and some fundamental Sikh organisations continued.
While the Dera head appears to be in no mood to render an apology for his alleged blasphemy, some Sikh organisations with extremist ideology, including Damdami Taksal are pressing for tomorrow's deadline for the state administration to arrest the Baba.
Any talks for a rapproachment between the Akails and the Deras also appeared dim with the militant faction within the Sikh clergy that the Dera head should apologise, a demand which has not found favour with Baba Gurmeet.
Sectarian violence erupted in the state on May 14 after newspapers carried an advertisement showing the Dera head allegedly imitating the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.
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