Bandh throws life out of gear in many areas

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 15

Sikh protesters blockade on the Bathinda-Goniana road against the alleged sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari village near Kotkapura threw life out of gear and left hundreds of commuters distressed today.

Around 100 protesters, including women, youngsters and elderly, squatted in the middle of the road blocking both sides of the double lane on the Sirhind Canal Bridge at Goniana Road.

SAD leader and councillor Rajinder Sidhu and SAD (A) district president Parminder Balianwali were leading the protest wherein youngsters were also seen carrying swords and sticks.

The police didn’t allow protesters to forcibly shut down shops in Hospital Bazaar where youngsters carrying swords and sticks were driven out with force.

While protesters were interminably chanting Waheguru, the commuters stranded on roads failed to find alternate routes to reach their destinations.

Anxious parents on way to pick their children from schools due to delayed declaration of holiday, patients, government and private employees and guests were among the others who remained at the receiving end due to the blockade.

As protesters demanded immediate arrest of those involved in the alleged sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, marooned commuters on two and four wheelers entered into heated arguments with traffic policemen.

“Please allow me to pick my child from a school on Goniana road as my car is unable to cross the narrow alternate bridge situated two kilometers away,” pleaded Karanbir Brar, who managed to reach Sirhind Bridge after circumventing the barricades put up by traffic policemen at Rose Garden Chowk.

Brar’s pleas were, however, snubbed by protesters who refused to budge and instead blocked another road connecting Thermal Colony alongside Sirhind Canal.

Daily bus passengers lamented that no private bus could ply on roads in view of the protest though trains came again on track after nine days of farmers’ blockade.

Those who came from far off places were the worst affected as they were not aware of the topography of the area and hence couldn’t take alternate routes to reach their destinations.

People were forced to take as long as 10 to 15 kilometers of deviation in view of the bandh.

Though a majority of shops in various markets of Bathinda city were open for the entire day today, the nearby mandis — Goniana, Rampura, Maur, Rama and Sangat — witnessed a complete bandh.

While some emergency vehicles were allowed to pass initially from Sirhind Bridge on Goniana Road, none of such vehicles were allowed to cross over the siege in Bhucho Mandi.

Breathless policemen in the evening said they left no stone unturned to maintain peace in the city.

“We used our entire energy to get intelligence inputs pertaining to the protesters who were categorically made aware that no shops would be allowed to closed forcibly,” said Bathinda SSP Rajeshwar Singh Sidhu.

He pointed out that nobody was rounded up or arrested today and every protester, especially the youngsters were “counselled” to make them understand the gravity of the situation in the wake of continuous protests.