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Rail, road traffic disrupted; bandh peaceful
Tribune Reporters

Chandigarh, November 3
Punjab came to a near stop today with the day-long statewide bandh call given by radical Sikh outfits paralysing rail and road services and throwing normal life out of gear.

The bandh call, given by the Dal Khalsa, Damdami Taksal, All-India Sikh Students Federation, Khalsa Action Committee, SAD (Panj Pardhani) and SAD (Longowal), to protest against the alleged inaction against the 1984 riot accused passed off peacefully without any untoward incident being reported from anywhere in the state. It had a limited effect in Chandigarh.

A view of a deserted road during a bandh organised by Sikh organisations in Bathinda on Tuesday to protest against the delay in delivery of justice to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots	Security personnel taking stock of the security during the “Punjab Bandh” in Ferozepur on Tuesday. Tribune photographs

A number of trains originating from Amritsar, Ludhiana and Ferozepur were cancelled while some others were terminated due to blockades set up by the Dal Khalsa and Khalsa Action Committee activists between Rajpura and Shambhu and atAmritsar on the mainline Ambala-Amritsar section that provides a link to the national capital and Jammu and Kashmir.

Affected trains included Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express, New Delhi-Amrtisar Shatabdi Express, Amritsar-New Delhi Inter City Express, Amritsar-Hardwar Jan Shatabdi Express, Howrah-Amritsar Express, Ahmedabad-Jammu Express as well as a number of passenger trains. A number of trains were terminated at Ambala and other stations in Haryana while others were stranded at railway stations in Jalandhar,Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Batala.

The Dal Khalsa activists also did not allow plying of state-owned roadways as well as private buses at various places in Punjab and also the Union Territory. Shops and business establishments remained closed in most parts of the state even as essential services remained unaffected.

At Amritsar, no Punjab Roadways bus was allowed to move out of the main bus stand even as hundreds of passengers were left stranded at the railway station there. Activists of radical groups cut off the Jammu-Delhi rail link at 4.30 am by squatting on the Bhaiyan Da Shivala railway crossing. The Shatabdi was cancelled immediately and no train could reach Amritsar station till late afternoon. The police stopped agitators from moving with unsheathed swords at Ram Bagh chowk and in the Sultanwind area.

In Ludhiana, except for a clash between activists of two radical organisations, the bandh passed off peacefully. Shops, business establishments, industrial units and educational institutions remained closed for most of the day. Markets which did not respond to the bandh call in the morning were forced to down shutters after groups of youth brandished unsheathed swords.

In Patiala the bandh was marked by stray incidents of mild lathicharge. Various Sikh organisations resorted to ‘chakka jam’ in different parts of the city. Some Sikh groups made a futile attempt to close the gates of Punjabi University and the main bus stand but they were thwarted by the police, which resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the protesters. The police also dispersed a group led by SAD councillor Kanwaljeet Singh Gona who led a dharna outside the bus stand. Most of the protesters were wearing T-shirts having photographs of Sikh ideologue Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale.

The bandh passed off peacefully in Jalandhar. Vehicular traffic was restored after 5 pm. In Moga, groups protested outside the district headquarters and blocked traffic on the national highway. Traffic on the Moga-Barnala road was also disrupted following a sit-in.

In Bathinda, the main bus stand wore a deserted look as all private transport, including buses of the Badal family, remained off the roads. Activists of radical organisations forced closure of markets in Abohar and Fazilka in Ferozepur district. Markets also remained closed in Mansa.

The call for the bandh evoked a good response across Sangrur and Barnala districts.

Meanwhile in Chandigarh, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) activists led by its president, Balbir Singh Rajewal, submitted a memorandum to the Governor, Lt Gen (retd) S F Rodrigues, to protest against the delay in providing justice to the victims of the 1984 riots. Traffic was disrupted at a few places in the city in the afternoon but educational institutions as well as commercial centres remained open.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal thanked the people of the state for a peaceful bandh and appreciated the role of the state civil and police administration.

(With inputs from S.P. Sharma, Varinder Singh, Kanchan Vasdev, Kulwinder Sandhu, Umesh Dewan, Bipin Bhardwaj and Shariq Majeed)