Defying Section 144, Cong leaders enter Muktsar village in strength

Tuesday, 28/05/2013

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130528/punjab.htm#1

Mann (Muktsar) : Defying Section 144 imposed by the district authorities, state Congress leaders, led by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa, marched to Mann village after assembling at Badal village this morning.

Fearing arrest, more than a hundred families of Congress workers in Mann village have fled their homes since the poll violence on May 19 in which nine vehicles were torched. The village has been a Congress stronghold since long.

Bajwa demanded a CBI inquiry or a probe by a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the "atrocities" on Congress workers and their families at the hands of Akali activists.

Maheshinder Singh Badal, who enjoys a massive following in the village, said the aggrieved residents would tomorrow file a police complaint on the ‘witch-hunt’ of Congress supporters.

With no police personnel in the village today, the Congress leaders freely raised slogans against the Badals. Several families complained that in the absence of male members, there was none to take care of the sick and the elderly and to tend to the crops and livestock.

Bajwa said the plight of residents would be highlighted at every platform across the country to show how the SAD-BJP alliance was "killing grassroots democracy."

Though Bajwa put up a unity show, he publicly chided Vikramjit Singh, president, Punjab Youth Congress, for walking ahead of him. The latter had arrived with his supporters in strength.

Congress workers almost came to blows at the house of another worker. They accused one another of siding with the Akalis.

On CWC member Jagmeet Brar's visit to the village yesterday, Bajwa said as a senior leader, he was free to go anywhere.

Bajwa was accompanied by Congress vice-president and Malwa head Gurpreet Kangar, MPs Ravneet Bittu and Santosh Chowhdry, MLAs Karan Kaur Brar, Raja Warring and Parminder Pinky, Gicky Dhillon and Harminder Jassi.

Talking to mediapersons, he said the village residents were not criminals and were paying the price for standing with the Congress.

Genesis of the problem
On May 19, at least 19 vehicles were torched and shots were fired in an attempt to capture a booth at Govt Senior Secondary School

• The police blamed Congress workers for the rioting and arson
  
  
• A case was filed against 25 identified persons and 125 unidentified persons for the violence
  
  
• Fearing arrest, panic-stricken Congress workers fled the village
  
  
• Villagers allege that Akali leaders are asking them to join the SAD or face police action