Nihangs assault eatery owners over delay in order, vandalise shop

A group of about 15 youths dressed like Nihangs attacked owners of an eatery at Milap Chowk last evening with swords as their order was not delivered to them on time.

The miscreants also vandalised the shop - Duggal Veg Chaap. The whole incident was captured on CCTV cameras installed in the shop. The police reached the spot late and by then the accused had left after leaving everyone, including customers, terrorised.

Mohit, who runs the shop, said, "We are three brothers and the assailants attacked all three of us. They even snatched a gold chain that I was wearing. A few Nihangs had come to our shop on Tuesday evening. They had to wait longer to get their order as there was a lot of rush that time. They had got infuriated. Some customers had intervened and the matter was sorted out".

He said, "They came again last evening. They were in larger number and came with a motive to attack us. They smashed our counters, chaap stall and glass frames with swords, leaving the shop vandalised. They also threatened us."

Interestingly, the incident took place just two hours after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal left Jalandhar. Since the police were on day-long drill for the VVIP visit, the response to frantic calls made by shopkeepers came very late. This further annoyed the victim brothers and other shopkeepers in the area. "So far, we have been able to identify just one accused - Inderjit - from among the assailants. We are on a hunt to nab them", said the police from Police Station Division No. 4.

In response to the incident, members of the Traders Forum met the affected family this morning and held a meeting. They announced that if the police do not arrest the accused and give them justice, they would give a call for Jalandhar bandh.

ADCP Naresh Dogra met the traders this morning and assured them that all attackers would be caught by tomorrow evening. Following this, the Traders Forum held another meeting this afternoon, attended by members of the affected Duggal family. It was decided that they would wait until tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, trader leaders Ravinder Dhir, Baljit Singh Ahluwalia, Amit Sehgal, Naresh Malhotra, Rakesh Gupta, Arun Bajaj, Vipan Prinja, Ashwini Malhotra, Sandeep Gandhi, and Rajinder Chatrath expressed outrage over the incident.

They stated, "The manner in which the attack occurred shows that the criminals have no fear of law. The fact that home and offices of senior police and administrative officials are barely 1 km away from the scene and yet no senior official visited the family or took action, is shameful." The traders said the owners kept calling the SHO but to no response.

The leaders said that the situation in Punjab is not conducive to business, and daily incidents are occurring. Due to the lax law and order situation, criminals are emboldened to commit crimes like daylight shootings, sword fights, and looting. They appealed to the Chief Minister to focus on law and order, or else traders and businessmen might start migrating out of Punjab again. Others who attended the meeting included Manoj Kapila, Sukhbir Singh Lovely, Gagan Chhabra, Nitin Gupta, Harpreet Lovely, Sarabjit Anand, and Balbir Singh.