Panchayat elections: 3 injured in Tarn Taran village firing incident

PK Jaiswar & Gurbaxpuri

Barring a firing incident at Baba Saini Bhagat Sohal village in Tarn Taran and minor skirmishes in Amritsar, the panchyat polls largely remained peaceful till the filing of the reports on Tuesday.

Three persons were injured in a clash between two groups outside a polling station at Government Elementary School at Sohal village in Tarn Taran district on Tuesday. One of the injured, identified as Manpreet Singh of the same village, was rushed to hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

The incident led to halting of the election process, which was restarted after a heavy police force reached there and brought the situation under control.

The clash broke out after arguments over the queue at the polling station. The two groups were headed by Tarsem Singh having the backing of several groups of the village and AAP-supported Gurdev Singh, aka Fauji.

Paramjit Singh, SHO, Chabal, said the incident took place when workers of both the groups were issuing voter slips to their respective supporters at polling booths installed outside polling stations.

While Manpreet Singh suffered a bullet injury in the stomach, two others, including Buta Singh, sustained injuries by a sharp-edged weapon. Manpreet Singh said the supporters of the opposite group were armed with revolvers and they fired at him taking shelter in a parked car. The SHO said the statement of the victim was being recorded and a case would be registered.

Meanwhile, two groups indulged in a clash and threw bricks and stones at each other during a dispute at Balagan Sidhu village falling under Rajasansi constituency here. The incident led to panic among the voters who had come to cast their votes. The police had to use mild lathi-charge to scatter those involved in the clash and brought the situation under control. The polling was disrupted for some time.

Besides, minor scuffles were also reported from Dode and Ramrauni village in Tarn Taran.

The district administration and senior police officials remained on toes during the whole day. Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney visited many polling stations and interacted with people and polling staff.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar along with other senior police officials visited various polling stations in the district.

SSPs Charanjit Singh Sohal of Amritsar Rural and Gaurav Toora of Tarn Taran also remained in the field.