Chandigarh, September 22
Yesterday’s incident in Ludhiana, where protesting students, including girls, of veterinary sciences were cane-charged, has sparked off an outrage with the public, political parties and social organisations reacting to the happenings.

The Shiromani Akali Dal has decided to organise a dharna by its women’s section at Ludhiana on September 26 in front of the local Mini Secretariat between noon and 3 pm.

Announcing this, SAD President Parkash Singh Badal today said the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh should have acted responsibly as the students were merely raising their legitimate demands in a peaceful and democratic manner. His open praise of the police brutality and his open threats to the students showed that the police had actually acted under direct orders from him, Mr Badal alleged. The Chief Minister’s justification of the police action against peaceful students was more shocking than the police action itself.

No leader could ever dream of justifying the molestation of girls in broad daylight. The clean chit to the guilty police officials would merely embolden them and their colleagues to unleash such shameful vendetta on innocent citizens in future also, said Mr Badal in a statement here.

In a separate statement, a former SGPC president, Bibi Jagir Kaur, said: “A befitting response would be given to the humiliation of the young girls by a power drunk government”.

The Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association strongly condemned the lathi charge by the Punjab Police on unemployed veterinary graduates and students of college of veterinary science.

The patron of the association, Dr G.S. Chahal, said the association strongly supports the demand of unemployed veterinary graduates to fill up posts of veterinary officers lying vacant for the last five years. These posts were advertised in June this year.

However, a fresh advertisement was issued on August 20 which was in contravention to the provisions of the Indian Veterinary Council Act, 1984.