After Gurjars Sikhs halt trains

Blockades on Wednesday affect commuters in Punjab and Haryana, but there is no violence

CHANDIGARH: Rail blockade is becoming the country’s favourite means of protest. Just when the 28-day Gurjar agitation, which led to cancellation of over 70 trains, finally would down last week, the Sikhs have now decided to take en masse to the railway lines.

Various radical Sikh organisations flexed their muscles in Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday, disrupting railway traffic at more than two dozen places to demand immediate arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, whose guards had gunned down a Sikh youth in Mumbai last week.

While no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state, hundreds of passengers were subjected to day-long inconvenience.

The beleaguered railway authorities cancelled 13 trains, many of them plying on the Delhi route from various parts of the state. No train could leave Amritsar all through the day. Even Sikh pilgrims travelling by the Sachkhand Express train, which goes to Nanded Sahib in Maharashtra, remained stranded on the platform till the railway authorities announced cancellation of the train.

Hundreds of pilgrims on way to Vaishnodevi and Amarnath shrines in Jammu and Kashmir were also left stranded after a train from Jabalpur to Jammu-Tawi was stopped at Chaheru in Phagwara. The two goods trains were stopped at Amritsar and Madhopur near Sirhind.

The rail blockade call was given by radical Sikh groups, including the Damdami Taksal, and the SAD (Amritsar) to demand the arrest of the Dera chief.

The cancelled trains included the Amritsar-Barauni Express, Amritsar-Mumbai Paschim Express, Amritsar-Dadar Express, Saryu Jammu Express, Amritsar Tata Nagar Express and Jammu Tawi-Guwahati Lohit Express.

The New Delhi Amritsar-Shatabdi, New Delhi Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab, Howrah Express, Jallianwala Bagh Express, Chhattisgarh Express and Mumbai-Amritsar Frontier Mail were terminated short of their destinations at Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Beas, a railway spokesman said. Several local trains running in the region were also terminated before their final destinations.

Road traffic was also blocked for some time on the Jalandhar-Amritsar national highway at Dhilwan near Kapurthala when more than 100 Sikhs staged a protest for nearly half-an-hour.

The protesters squatted on the track at several places, including Amritsar, Madhopur (Sirhind), Malout, Abohar, Moga, Sangrur, Mullanpur (Ludhiana) and Rajpura.
At Madhopur, around 400 Sikhs led by Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh and SAD (Amritsar) president Daljit Singh Bittu sat on the tracks between Delhi, Amritsar and Jammu, disrupting the movement of trains. In Amritsar, a large number of youths of the Taksal carried swords in their hands and portraits of slain Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and blocked rail tracks at different railway crossings.

In Sirsa, where the Dera headquarters is located, the Sikhs did not allow any train to run for most part of the day. Hisar range IG AK Dhul said tight security measures had been taken to prevent untoward incidents.

He said apart from the local police, two companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and a company each of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Haryana Armed Police (HAP) had been deployed.

Besides, 37 villages had been identified as sensitive, falling under Ding, Badagudda, Sadar Dabwali, Sadar Sirsa, Odhan, City Dabwali, Kalawali and Rori police stations.

As many as 18 nakas across the district had been laid to beef up the security. The area around the headquarters of the Dera Sacha Sauda has been turned into a cantonment since the arrival of the Dera chief. A makeshift police chowki has been set up a few kms away from the entrance of the Dera and each vehicle approaching the Dera road is scanned and even minute details about them are being noted. Commuters are being frisked to avoid any untoward  incidents.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net