Protesters bring city to a halt, press for CM Badal’s resignation

Sunday, 18/10/2015

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LUDHIANA: Protesters, who are up in arms against the alleged sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, have demanded Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s resignation on Saturday saying the state government had failed to stop such blasphemous acts.

The traffic in the city came to a standstill as Sikh activists blocked the highway and internal roads leaving commuters a harried lot.

The situation has been already tense in many Ludhiana villages due to killing of two youths at Kotkapura recently. The agitators came out in a large number from the rural belts of Ludhiana and others districts of Punjab to protest. Many of the protesters alleged that all these controversies are a result of bad politics created by the state government.

Activists also protested at Samrala, Sahnewal, Jagraon, Hasanpur, Khanna, Ajitwal among other areas of the district demanding the CM’s resignation over failure of the government to tackle the situation and stopping acts of sacrilege. They claimed that the government has so far failed to arrest the accused.

Mostly all the areas in Ludhiana were blocked for over four hours by the Sikh activists. Ravinder Singh Gogi, son of Babu Surat Singh Khalsa, and other Sikh activists staged the protest for more than five hours.

The main Jagroan Bridge in Ludhiana was blocked for three hours by the activists and the protesters did not even allow cyclists to cross the way. The bus services were hit badly due to the protest. A large number of people were harassed due it.

Gurdeep Singh, secretary of Rajguru Nagar Gurudwara, said, “This is sheer harassment for the Sikh community as such acts of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib has taken place in Punjab in the past too but the state government is on silent mode. Guru Granth Sahib is sacred for us and the miscreants have torn its pages. It was a blackout day in the Sikh history. We all Sikh activists want either the chief minister’s resignation or he should punish the culprits.”

Addressing a huge gathering at Nathuwala Garbhi Chowk, Prof Manjit Singh appealed to everyone to maintain peace and not let mischievous persons spread hatred among different communities.

Due to the fresh sacrilege incidents at two places, protesters threatened that they would continue with the blockade till the government file an FIR of murder (302) on the accused policemen.

Spreading the message of peace and harmony, SOI wing of Shiromani Akali Dal, carried out a peace march from Bhai Bala Chowk to Aarti Chowkon Saturday.

Sikh agitators also alleged that they will ‘gherao’ the house of Avtar Singh Makkar, president of Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandhak Committee, at 1 pm on Sunday.