Dera followers burn bus, block railway line, highway

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Moga March 8:

Tension prevailed at the district headquarters in the town this afternoon when followers of Dera Sacha Sauda burnt a Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) bus, blocked the Moga Muktsar/Bathinda highway and disrupted the railway traffic on the Moga-Ludhiana railway line in protest against the registration of a police case against them in the wake of yesterday’s incident of violence in the nearby Dhalleke village.

This morning, the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda started gathering at their local dera on the Moga-Muktsar road after coming to know that radical Sikh leader Baljeet Singh Daduwal had arrived in the gurdwara at Dhalleke village. Daduwal, while addressing a gathering on the gurudwara premises, gave an ultimatum to the local administration to arrest the dera followers who pelted the gurdwara with stones within three days.

As soon as Daduwal left the town at about 3.30 pm, the dera followers marched towards the main square of the town. On the way, they burnt a PRTC bus near the Public Works Department guest house and allegedly roughed up the driver and the conductor of the bus. However, they did not proceed further in view of a heavy deployment of police and returned. They blocked the traffic on the Moga-Muktsar road near the flyover. Another group of protesters blocked the Moga-Ludhiana railway line and forced a train to come to a halt, coming from Ludhiana. Another train coming from Ferozepur was stopped at the railway station.

The dera followers demanded cancellation of the criminal case registered against them and arrest of the ASI, Jagdish Lal, who ordered cane charge on them at Dhalleke village on Sunday. The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Abhinav Trikha, and SSP Sneh Deep Sharma held a dialogue with them and assured them that the said ASI would be suspended from service and departmental action would also be initiated against him, after which blockades from the highway and the railway track were lifted by the protesters.

 
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