Nangal, March 6
A high-level meeting between senior officers of the police and the administration of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh was held at Nehru Sadan in Nangal today to ease tension between the truck operators of Nangal and Bilaspur. The situation became tense here after police firing by the Himachal Pradesh police yesterday in which one truck operator was killed and several others were injured at Goalthai in Bilaspur district.
The senior officials included the DIG (Ludhiana Range), Mr Parag Jain, the DIG (Mandi Range), Mr J.R. Thakur, the Deputy Commissioner, Ropar, Mr H.I.S. Garewal, the Deputy Commissioner, Bilaspur, Mr Manish Garg, the SSP, Ropar, Surinder Pal Singh, and the SP, Bilaspur, Mr Chander Shekhar, discussed the incident for about two hours.
The meeting was held in the afternoon. However, till then the Ropar police had arrested 22 truck operators of Nangal, who had allegedly set on fire trucks and a Himachal Roadways bus in Anandpur Sahib and damaged one bus at Nangal town yesterday. Two cases of rioting and assault and causing damage to vehicles were registered against them at Anandpur Sahib while another case was registered in Nangal police Station. Those arrested include president of the truck operator union, Nangal, Ravinder Singh Bitta. Besides, the Himachal police has also registered a case of attempt to murder against the Nangal truck operators for causing grievous injuries to police personnel.
After the meeting, Mr Parag Jain told The Tribune that the meeting was called as the people of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab were injured in the incident yesterday. We discussed the details of the incident and the measures to prevent such an incident in future.
The DIG, Mandi, Mr J.R. Thakur, said the situation was under control and we had deployed the police at Barmana, Swarghat and other places of Bilaspur district so that trucks and buses of Punjab could ply smoothly. Besides the Nangal truck operators, 10 persons, including Himachal Pradesh police personnel and truck operators of Barwana (HP) were also injured in the violence yesterday.
“The condition of SHO Puran Chand is said to be serious as he suffered head injuries and was admitted to hospital in Shimla, while other injured were admitted to hospital at Bilaspur. The routes of the Himachal Roadways buses were diverted from Nangal as a precautionary measure, he added.
Jarnail Singh, who was killed in the firing yesterday, was cremated this evening. The condition of the other seriously wounded trucker operator of Nangal, Mr Sukhdev Singh, who was admitted to the PGI, is stable.
The president of the Punjab State Truck Operator Union, Mr Tarlochan Singh Parmar, after holding a meeting with the Nangal Truck Operators Union this evening here demanded the withdrawal of all cases registered against truck operators of Nangal.
He said a criminal case should be registered against the Himachal police officials who opened firing in which one person was killed and another seriously injured. He further added that if their demands were not accepted then they would not allow any bus or truck from Himachal to enter Punjab.
