Sacrilege incident: Punjab situation improves

Chandigarh: The situation in Punjab, which had been on the boil following a spate of sacrilege incidents, on Saturday appeared to have improved with no fresh untoward incident and protesters by and large not resorting to road blockades and forced shut down of commercial establishments.

"The situation is normal here and there is no report of any untoward incidents," DIG Ferozepur Range Amar Singh Chahal said today.

There was, however, an incident in Moga where protesters blocked two roads from Dagru and Moga to Ferozepur road and Rode Government college and Panjgrain.

All educational institutions and business establishments functioned normally in Moga city after the deployment of paramilitary forces, one company of BSF along with Punjab Police who took out a flag march in the city and outskirts.

Traffic on national highway heading towards Jalandhar and Ludhiana and on Phagwara-Hoshiarpur and Phagwara-Nakodar roads remained normal but road blockades at Harike bridge in Tarn Taran continued.

A report from Phagwara said activists of about a dozen Sikh bodies, supported by BSP and AAP, took out a protest march from Gurdwara Nimmawala and formed a long human chain on one side of the national highway without blocking traffic.

Carrying banners and placards, they also formed a human chain across Phagwara-Hoshiarpur-Sughar Mill overbridges to protest desecration of the holy book.

They demanded release of two Sikh brothers arrested in Bargarhi desecration case and action against communal elements vitiating the atmosphere.

Police have so far arrested six persons, mostly working in Sikh shrines, in connection with the sacrilege incidents.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal has said that the protests by Sikh activists would have no bearing on upcoming Investors Summit slated to be held on October 28-29 at Mohali.

He said that the state government was fully committed to maintaining peace and communal harmony in the state and nobody would be allowed to vitiate the atmosphere.

A meeting was held in Gurdwara Nimmawala chowk where participants disapproved of the violence at Gurdwara Kapurthala by some angry youths.

However, the participants, at the same time, criticized the arrest of Sikh youths in connection with the incident.

Sikh activists and religious preachers are demanding the release of two brothers-Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh who had been arrested by Punjab police in connection with sacrilege incident at Faridkot.

Yesterday, a large number of people, along with Sikh activists, had submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Faridkot demanding the release of two brothers, saying police had "wrongly" framed them up.