Punjab was on the boil on Monday as rioting and arson, triggered by a violent attack on Dera Sachkhand chief Sant Niranjan Dass in Vienna, spread to major cities.
Punjab was on the boil on Monday as rioting and arson, triggered by a violent attack on Dera Sachkhand chief Sant Niranjan Dass in Vienna, spread to major cities.
Two people were killed in police firing in Jalandhar after a rioting crowd defied curfew and blocked traffic at over 70 places and set ablaze over a dozen official vehicles, including public transport buses. The entire rail traffic passing through the state was put on hold after the Jammu Tawi-Kanyakumari train was set ablaze in Jalandhar in the morning. Curfew was clamped at four places and the army carried out flag marches in Jalandhar, Phagwara, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana.
Dera Sachkhand followers, armed with sticks, swords, bricks and stones, came out in large numbers in Punjab’s Doaba belt. Protests also spread to neighbouring Haryana where Dera followers blocked the Chandigarh-Delhi National Highway. Two buses were torched near Ambala. The Delhi-Lahore bus service was disrupted near Ludhiana.
The rampaging mob also attacked the convoy of IGP Sanjiv Kalra at Lambra in Jalandhar. His security guards fired several rounds in the air to keep the violent crowd at bay.
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said he had sought details of the shooting at the gurdwara in Vienna from the external affairs minister. Dera head Sant Niranjan Dass, 68, was said to be stable after surgery at a Vienna hospital. But sect second-in-command Sant Ramanand, 57, succumbed to his injuries on Monday. The law and order situation deteriorated over Ramanand’s death.
In Delhi, prime minister Manmohan Singh made an appeal to the people in Punjab to maintain peace and communal harmony in accordance with the tenets of Sikhism. “I appeal to all sections of people in Punjab to abjure violence and maintain peace,” he said. A delegation of Congress MPs called on Union home minister P Chidambaram to ensure adequate measures for peace in the state.
Curfew was relaxed for an hour in Jalandhar between 5-6 pm. The chief minister has called an all-party meet on Tuesday. Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal gave a bandh call to “express sympathy with the victims”.
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