After being on the boil for about a week over sacrilege incidents and police firing, Punjab was peaceful on Thursday even though some places witnessed tension and para military forces conducted flag marches in various parts of the state.
Sikh organizations, not satisfied with the government’s measures, announced setting up of a ‘Peoples Commission’ to probe sacrilege incidents, police firing in Faridkot’s Behbal Kalan village where two people were killed and alleged police excesses on Sikhs in the state.
The Rapid Action Force, along with police, carried out flag marches in various parts of Phagwara where tension was witnessed when groups of Sikhs and Hindus came face to face, brandishing swords and sticks, police said. A possible clash was, however, averted by the timely intervention of police.
Hindu hardliners were objecting to blocking of traffic on Dussehra festival by Sikh radicals who were staging a dharna on National highway 1 at Hardobingnagar crossing, police said.
A group of Sikh hardliners had blocked traffic to protest incidents of desecration of their holy book Guru Granth Sahib, police said.
In signs of normalcy returning to the state, Sikh protesters on Thursday limited their sit-ins to internal roads across the state as a result of which most of the national highways witnessed normal traffic movements.
Ten companies of paramilitary forces and Punjab Police personnel kept a tight vigil in the wake of protests by sikh organisations, including hardliners in parts of the state, including Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Fardikot, police said.
There were protests in Panjgrain village of Faridkot from where the two brothers accused in the sacrilege incident in Bargari village hail as locals claim that they are innocent.
Traffic movement on Harike Pattan bridge at Tarn Taran and Beas in Amritsar has been restored, police said.
Meanwhile, the hardliners among Sikh politicians and religious preachers rubbished the police theory behind the arrest of two brothers for the alleged act of sacrilege in Bargari village.
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann said it was hard to believe the police until the ‘bir’ (scriptures) stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village was recovered and subjected to forensic tests to confirm that pages found in Bargari were from it.
“The police story has gaps,” Mann said.
Hardliners alleged that all arrested accused were either baptised Sikhs or gurdwara priests, “none of whom could have done it”. They demanded that the case be handed over CBI.
However, initiating proceedings against the former Faridkot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Charanjit Sharma, the Punjab government has cleared the decks for chargesheeting him on account of negligence in duty and police firing on Sikh activists, who had been protesting sacrilege at Bargari in Faridkot district, official sources said.
Sharma was SSP Faridkot when the holy book was first reported stolen from a gurdwara there but was later posted as Moga SSP. - PTI
Protesters limit their sit-ins as a result of which most of the highways saw normal traffic movement
