Protesters gagged, dragged out of Harsimrat’s function

Tribune News Service

Mansa, August 27

The protesting family members of unemployed linemen were gagged and dragged out of a function that Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal was addressing here today. The minister was scheduled to distribute cycles to students under the Mai Bhago scheme.

As soon as Harsimrat began her speech, the protesters, mostly women, started raising anti-government slogans. The protesters alleged that before the policewomen arrived, policemen used foul language and misbehaved with the women.

Children of some protesters – five-year-old Sahajdeep Kaur and one-year-old Sharanpreet Singh –were injured when their mothers were being dragged by the police personnel in plain clothes. The clothes of some of the protesters got torn.

Till the filing of this report, the police had not registered any case against Amandeep Kaur, Gagandeep Kaur, Virpal Kaur, Kiranjit Kaur, Gurjant Singh, Balwinder Singh, Antar Singh and Baljinder Singh who had been rounded up.

The administration had already got a whiff of the linemen’s plans and, as a last ditch effort, it had begun a meeting with the leaders of the union to persuade them not to spoil the function.

The police had even identified some of them and sent them out of the venue.

The function was marred by not one, but two protests. During the function, a group of SAD leaders, led by Bhikhi Market Committee chairman Baldev Singh, staged a walkout complaining that they had not been given due respect by the organisers. It took wheedling by senior police officers to bring the upset leaders back to the venue.