Barwala (Hisar), August 9
A mob burnt a Haryana Roadways bus here today during a road blockade on National Highway 65.

The mob had gathered in protest against the murder of a security guard by suspected thieves last night.

Sources said when the two thieves were trying to break into a tyre shop located near the bus stand, here; one of the guards on duty there noticed and raised the alarm. In response another guard on duty nearby rushed for help.

The thieves attacked one of the guards identified as Telu Ram, when he tried to intercept. Later, Ram succumbed to his injuries.

In the morning a crowd gathered in the market and blocked traffic on National Highway 65 which goes to Chandigarh.

Sources said the crowd got angry as the police did not arrive on the scene last night even after it was informed of the incident.

The SP rushed to the spot and pacified the crowd which later dispersed. However, some miscreants suddenly set a bus afire near the bus stand after the blockade was lifted.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the road during the blockade.

However, many vehicles chose village link roads to bypass the blockade site.

Fatehabad, August 9
Madan Bansal, a local journalist, who publishes an evening daily 'Haryana Ki Goonj' from here has approached the district police chief Saurabh Singh for providing him security in the wake of threats to his life by some unidentified persons after he published an anonymous letter regarding Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in his paper yesterday.

The letter was first printed in a Punjabi daily published from Chandigarh yesterday and was reproduced by Bansal in his paper in Hindi in his evening paper.

Local journalists led by Arjun Jagga, district president of the Zila Patrakaar Sangh, today met the SP demanding security for the scribe.

In a related incident, members of the dera, block Fatehabad, led by Om Parkash Soni today met the deputy commissioner O P Sheoran demanding registration of a criminal case against Bansal for publishing inflammatory article in his paper.

The dera followers said in the memorandum addressed to the Haryana chief minister that Bansal had hurt religious sentiments of lakhs of dera followers by publishing derogatory matter regarding their religious head.

The memorandum warned that the district authorities would be responsible in case any untoward incident occurred due to publication of such matter.

The SP, when contacted, said the police was looking into the request of the scribe and was also studying the memorandum of the dera followers to see if any case was made out.

Some persons, it may be recalled, had ransacked Bansal's newspaper office five years back on June 6, 2002, when his paper published an anonymous letter of a dera sadhvi.

Bansal had then lodged a complaint against some dera followers but the authorities stepped in to resolve the matter through compromise after hundreds of dera followers from different parts of Punjab and Haryana landed in the town and squattered all along the roads leading to the police station demading withdrawal of cases against their men and registration of case against Bansal.

Fatehabad, August 9
In an incident that turned out to be a family squabble, father-in-law of the former sadhvi of the Dera Sacha Sauda-a key witness in the rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, today filed a complaint in the local city police station against the witness of barging into his house with her brother and gunmen and 'decamping' with cash, ornaments and other valuable.

The police, however, found no substance in the allegations and said no cognizable offence was made out against the former sadhvi as it was a only a case of family quarrel.

Sadhvi's father-in-law, who is a staunch follower of the dera, said in his complaint that his daughter-in-law, who has been putting up at her parents' home at Sirsa for the past few days, came to his residence with her brother Sandeep at Fatehabad yesterday and started picking valuables and household items from his residence.

He alleged that she intimidated and pushed aside him and his wife, who tried to stop her.

He alleged when he asked the whereabouts of his son, she did not give any clear answer.

She, according to the father-in-law, 'decamped' in a car after taking all valuables.

Talking to reporters at the police station, he alleged that the police was not registering a case although 24 hours had elapsed since the incident.

The police, however, do not believe the allegations of the man and said it was a case of family quarrel.

According to the police sources, the former sadhvi has been putting up with her husband at Sirsa of her own ever since her identity was revealed here by a section of media and she had come here to collect her household items yesterday.

The sadhvi, according to sources, was under pressure from dera followers to retract from her statement given to magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC, when she was living at Fatehabad.

Chandigarh, August 9
M. Venkaiah Naidu, MP and former national president of the BJP, today alleged that the UPA-led government at the Centre did not pay any attention to proper celebration of the 150th anniversary of the 1857 revolt in the country.

Addressing a press conference here, Naidu said Savarkar did not figure anywhere in the programmes chalked out by the government in connection with the anniversary celebrations. He said the decision to ignore Savarkar in the anniversary celebrations was a preposterous one because it was Savarkar who first termed the 1857 event as the first war of independence. According to Naidu, Savarkar said this in 1907, on the 50th year of the revolt.

Naidu said the UPA government failed to attract young people to the celebrations. .

The BJP leader, who was accompanied by H S Grewal, the party’s co-in charge for Haryana, and A P Manchanda, Haryana BJP president, said the Congress party did not show much interest in organising the celebrations because the revolt did not have any hero from the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. He added that Left parties, who are the second largest partner in the UPA, were never in agreement with the 1857 revolt for ideological reasons. Naidu read out two lines, purportedly written by UK-based Communist ideologue R P Dutt on the 1857 revolt, to substantiate his point.

He said like the 1857 revolt had united the Indians against the colonial rulers cutting across castes, religions and creeds, the UPA government should also have involved all political parties in the anniversary. But the UPA left out opposition parties, including the BJP from the official celebrations, Naidu said.

The BJP would celebrate the revolt all over India, Naidu said and added that he would take part in a function at Ambala today in connection with the celebrations.

The BJP leader also announced that the party would organise a protest demonstration by farmers in front of the parliament building on August 20. The demonstrators will demand that farmers should be made stakeholders in SEZ projects, Naidu said.

Chandigarh, August 9
The empowerment of women is directly linked with the economic development of any country and hence it is essential to ensure their equal participation in the implementation of all developmental schemes, feels Haryana chief secretary Prem Prashant.

He stated this while inaugurating a two-day workshop on Capacity Building organised by the Haryana Bhartiya Grameen Mahila Sangh here today.

Prashant said education to a man was his personal achievement whereas educating a woman was like educating the entire family. Now the participation of women in day-to-day affairs was increasing which was a healthy indication. He said there was a need to bridge the gap of development between urban and rural areas by providing facilities in rural areas at par with urban areas.

Expressing concern over the increasing global warming, he said there was an urgent need to tackle this problem immediately otherwise we would soon reach to a point of destruction. The industry and agriculture sector should work in unison, only then the ecological balance could be maintained in true sense.

While detailing about the various projects being implemented by the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology in Haryana, he said this organisation had done remarkable work in the field of social welfare and to uplift the status of women. NGOs were implementing several rural schemes by the name of Yuva Jyoti in 2,500 villages of Haryana so as to balance the development in rural and urban areas.

Ambala, August 9
Three persons were killed and two injured in separate accidents, here today.

According to information, Mohinder Singh and his wife died on the spot when a truck hit their motorcycle on the Ambala-Jagadhri road near Manka Manki village. The elderly couple was going towards their house when the accident occurred. The police has registered a case against the truck driver.

In another accident, Rang Singh died when the jeep he was driving collided with a truck. Kanta, another occupant of the jeep, got injured and has been admitted to the PGI, Chandigarh. The truck driver managed to flee. The police has registered a case against the truck driver.

Ambala, August 9
The BJP today took out a torch procession through Ambala Sadar to mark the first War of Independence of 1857.

Former BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu and national campaign committee president Vijay Goel led the procession. A function was held at the Kumari Rukmani Devi memorial hall this evening in which tributes were paid to the first freedom fighters. Naidu said the first war of freedom set the tone for the freedom struggle, which ultimately led to India gaining Independence. He said 1857 was the turning point in the nation’s history.

Naidu observed that the significance of the first War of Independence had been undermined by the UPA, which had failed to highlight its importance.

MP Vijay Goel said the first War of Independence saw the participation of people from all sections of society. “We are running this campaign at the national level to highlight the importance of the war of 1857. This will help in awareness generation among people,” he said.