Protest march in Hoshiarpur

The city remained completely closed today due to a bandh call given by the Scheduled Caste (SC) community. SC organisations protested the incident of vandalism of Ambedkar’s statue located at Dr BR Ambedkar Chowk on Heritage Street, Amritsar.

Officials and members of various organisations gathered in large numbers and took out a protest march in the city.

Meanwhile, a few shops and banks that were open were forcibly closed by protesters. The leaders, leading the protesters, said Baba Saheb had been disrespected by miscreants and this had hurt the sentiments of crores of people. They said such an incident on Republic Day was a proof of the big failure of the Amritsar police and administrative officials.

Raising slogans against the government, they said the Chief Minister should focus on the law and order situation instead of being busy in election campaign in Delhi and other states. They said AAP had now become VIPs’ party. There had been an increase in robbery, theft, murder and corruption cases and people were feeling insecure.

Due to the shutdown, shops in city markets remained closed and people had to face inconvenience. District Bar Association, Hoshiarpur, also held a protest.

District Bar Association president Advocate Ranjit Kumar said the incident of insult to the constitution maker in Amritsar was a sad and incident. — OC