A police march in Phagwara on Saturday. (Express)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday appealed for peace and ordered suspension of mobile Internet and text services in four districts of the state following clashes between two Hindu groups and a Dalit outfit at Phagwara in Kapurthala district on the eve of Ambedkar Jayant Friday night, which left four persons injured.
Around 1000 police personnel, including from the Rapid Action Force, have been deployed in Phagwara, which remained tense on Saturday.
The police have booked around 500 people from both sides, 33 of them by name and the rest unidentified as yet.
Clashes broke out over putting up boards in a bid to rename “Gol Chowk” of Phagwara as “Samvidhan Chowk” by some activists of the Dalit outfit. Police said gunshots were also fired and stones pelted. Among the four injured, one Yashwant alias Bobby is said to be in a critical condition and has been referred to DMC in Ludhiana. The other three injured have been identified as Baljinder Kumar, Jaswinder, Sushil Tinka, Kulwinder and Jimmi Kawal.
On Saturday morning, Shiv Sena’s Punjab unit vice-president Rajesh Palta was assaulted by Dalit activists, who also attacked the vehicle of Phagwara SP P S Bhandhal who was going to meet Plata. Activists from both sides gathered at different places and traffic on NH-1 had to be diverted. However, later in the day, situation was brought under control after a huge police contingent marched through Phagwara.
As a precaution, the state government suspended mobile Internet and text services in Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar districts with immediate effect for 24 hours in the wake of the clashes, an order issued by Secretary, Home Affairs, Punjab, said.
IG Naunihal Singh, Commissioner (Jalandhar Division) Raj Kamal Chaudhary, Kapurthala DC Mohammad Tayyab and SSP Sandeep Sharma have been camping at Phagwara. Authorities also held several rounds of meetings with Dalit and Hindu outfits on Saturday. The board put up in a bid to rename the chowk was removed. All liquor vends were ordered shut closed for two days. Markets in the town also remained shut.