Teacher sustains 35% burns during protest in Bathinda

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 21

A protesting teacher sustained 35 per cent burn injuries as his clothes accidentally caught fire while burning the effigy of the state government at Fauji Chowk here today.

He was immediately taken to the Bathinda Civil Hospital, from where he was referred to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot.

High drama prevailed at the Civil Hospital as Senior Superintendent of Police Swapan Sharma allegedly misbehaved with the doctor on emergency duty, Dr Gurmail Singh, over the issue of referring Simarjit to Faridkot, following which the doctors went on strike and declared that they would be stalling work at OPD tomorrow.

The incident took place when members of the Shaheed Kiranjit Kaur EGS STR AIE Teachers Union marched towards Fauji Chowk to burn the effigy of the state government. One of the teachers poured petrol over the effigy and threw the bottle away.

An unsuspecting, Simarjit, who was standing on the other side of the effigy, accidentally stepped on the bottle that led to the inflammable substance being sprinkled in the air and on his clothes. Since Simarjit was standing quite close to the burning effigy, his clothes immediately caught fire.

Kotwali SHO Harbans Singh and head constable Gurwinder Singh swiftly took out a blanket from the police vehicle and wrapped Simarjit in it to douse the fire.