Indefinite curfew imposed in Ludhiana as protests turn violent

Indefinite curfew was today clamped in three police station areas of Ludhiana after a protest by migrant labourers against the failure of police to register cases of robbery turned violent.

"The curfew has been imposed in areas of police station No 6,7 and focal points which include the localities of industrial areas A and B, Dholewal Chowk, Chandigarh Road, Sector 32 and 32 A and Jamalpur," an official spokesman said.

The labourers are protesting against the failure of the police to register cases in connection with three incidents of snatching of cash from three labourers who had received their wages during the week.

Labourers alleged that amounts ranging from Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 were snatched from them in first week of every month, but the police had failed to register cases against the miscreants.

The protestors blocked the Delhi-Ludhiana-Jalandhar National highway and torched around 15 vehicles, including buses, cars, two-wheelers and a tractor this morning, police said.

Later, the migrants stoned a bus coming from Delhi injuring two passengers at Dhandari. A car was also stoned, but the driver managed to speed away from the spot. The labourers also damaged the window-panes of a textile mill in the Dhandari area. The working in a number of factories in the town was disrupted due to the protest by the migrant labourers hailing mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

"Since the protestors were in large numbers we had to fire around 10 rounds in the air to disperse the labourers," SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said, adding reinforcements have been rushed to the spot.

The situation was tense, but under control, he said.