Noormahl (Jalandhar), January 23
The poll hue and cry got mingled with panic in this sleepy historical township this morning when a schoolgirl was abducted in daylight by three car-borne unidentified youngsters from near Punjab Public School here stirring irate residents to lay a siege to the township for about two hours.
As the poll activity was picking up in the Doaba region, particularly in the Noormahl-Nakodar belt, having a large concentration of the NRI population, what shocked the residents was the daring “Bollywood-style” abduction of the schoolgirl, 13-year-old daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver hailing from Kotla village. The girl — Amandip Kaur, class VIII student of Government Senior Secondary School, Noormahl, was on the way to her school, when three unidentified masked youngsters bundled her into their white Maruti car. The car, according to eyewitnesses, rushed towards Sidhwan village after taking the road leading to Jalandhar.
Earlier on January 14, the mutilated body of Harsimran Kaur, a plus one student of the local KMV College and resident of the nearby Jandu Singha village was found in the village pond. She had left for her college on December 20 last year after which she did not return. Her parents had alleged foul play in the death of their daughter.
The news of this daring abduction spread like wildfire, with curious and agitated residents, particularly those of Kotla village, flocking the roads leading to Noormahl township, which virtually remained under their siege for about two hours till senior police officers reached the spot and pacified them. Leaders of various political parties and social organisations also joined the agitating residents and alleged that there was no law and order in rural areas.
Reacting to the incident, Mr Gurbinder Singh Atwal, a former Punjab Mandi Board Chairman and Congress candidate for the Noormahl segment, said the incident was shameful and had created a fear psychosis in the entire area. Similarly, Mr Tirath Ram, President of the Noormahl Municipal Council, said it was the first such incident in the area and had virtually left everybody shocked. “It seems to be a handiwork of goonda elements, who are proliferating in the city,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended over Kotla village from where Amandip hailed. People were seen making a beeline to her house to console her numbed parents. Talking to this correspondent, Mr Harjinder
Singh, Amandip’s father, said the family had no enmity with anybody. “We had never imagined that somebody could do this to us. This has shattered her mother who is still inconsolable,” he rued.
Sukhjinder Singh, an 8-year-old schoolboy and one of the two eyewitnesses to the incident, was so frightened that he could hardly narrate anything about the incident except saying,” They caught hold of her and pushed her inside the car before fleeing the scene.” Villagers said they had been seeing a Maruti car in and around the village for the past about one week. Mr Harjit Singh, an ASI, who was present in Amandip’s house, said a case had been registered and the police was looking for the
culprits.
