Situation improves in Punjab, violence in Haryana

Punjab was by and large peaceful on Tuesday barring Muktsar district where protestors clashed with police even as violence over the killing of a sect leader in Vienna spread to some areas of neighbouring Haryana.

Curfew was imposed in Malout in Muktsar district of Punjab after Dera Sachkhand followers pelted stones on the police and damaged the vehicle of the Additional Deputy Commissioner following which police used canes and fired in the air to quell the demonstrators.

Curfew imposed on Monday was lifted in most of the places in Ludhiana and relaxed in Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Jalandhar, the hub of Dera Sachkhand whose followers had indulged in largescale violence yesterday after the attack on Dera leaders in Vienna.

A protester was killed late on Monday night when an SAD councillor fired in "self defence" in Jalandhar after his car was attacked and set on fire. With this, the death toll in the violence in Punjab rose to three.

In Haryana, protestors clashed with police near Parade ground on Ambala-Jagadhri road and damaged a building of the Municipal Committee in Jagadhri town in Yamunagar district.

Police fired eight rounds in the air to disperse a mob in Jagadhri, where protestors also damaged a Government Senior Secondary School building besides eight cars belonging to the school staff and some motorcycles.

Police and Army patrolling in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Phagwara and Hoshiarpur continued in Punjab for the second day today even as officials said that the situation in the state was tense but under control.

Dera Sachkhand leader Niranjan Dass, who was injured in the attack in Vienna, is out of danger, sect leader Sant Surinder Dass Bawa said in Jalandhar.

Officials said buses were not plying as usual in Punjab and most of the train services remained curtailed. The first train that passed through Ludhiana this morning was Guwahati-Jammu Himgiri express.

However, roads, which had been blocked by protestors who had set up barricades, have been cleared for traffic, officials said, adding people were not venturing out due to fear.

In Chandigarh, an all party meeting convened by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was held which strongly condemned the attack on Dera leaders in Vienna on Sunday.

Cutting across party lines, major political parties, including ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine and the main opposition Congress participated in the meeting and asked the Centre to ensure that the guilty are punished in Austria.

The meeting passed an unanimous resolution seeking stringent punishment for those responsible behind the crime under the law.

Addressing the mediapersons after the meeting, Badal asserted that the situation in Punjab is "normal" and the administration's response to outbreak of arson and violence was "quick".

"The Punjab Government has managed to control the situation," the chief minister said.

The violence was apparently the outcome of the underlying resentment between followers of Dera Sachkhand, a Sikh sect comprising mainly of Dalits, and upper caste Sikhs.