Fresh trouble in Ludhiana

Communal clash leaves one dead, 20 injured after police action

More than 20 persons were injured in the police action against Sikh protesters who were trying to disrupt a religious congregation.

A large number of Sikh protesters led by some radical Sikh organisations had taken to streets on Saturday morning protesting against the holding of a congregation by the controversial religious leader, Baba Ashutosh Maharaj, who runs the Divya Jyoti Jagran Sansthan near Jalandhar.

The Sikhs have been incensed with the controversial saint ever since he spoke against the holy text of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib in the 1980s.

Police had to resort to firing after the angry protesters tried to barge into the venue of the meeting addressed by Ashutosh Maharaj near Ludhiana on Saturday. The protesters clashed with the police which initially tried to control the mob by firing teargas shells.
The police firing left one person dead and several others injured.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the entire sequence of events in Ludhiana on Saturday.

In a statement at Chandigarh, the chief minister appealed to all religious and social organisations in the state to play a constructive and pro-active role in maintenance of peace and amity among people. He described the Ludhiana incidents as “most unfortunate and painful”.

Meanwhile, curfew which was imposed in some parts of the city on Friday after migrant trouble was relaxed on Saturday. There was no report of any fresh trouble. Mobs of migrant labourers had attacked police, blocked national highway number one and damaged several vehicles on Friday in protest against alleged police laxity in nabbing a gang of snatchers.