The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday said that the Congress Government’s “green signal” to its cadres to strike at Akali workers and dislodge them from all democratic posts at the grass root level was resulting in a breakdown of law and order in Punjab and the gangsters were taking advantage of the situation to strike at will.
“Repression killings of Akali workers are on the rise…two Akali workers are murdered by Congress activists at Rukanshahwala village in Ferozepur district a day before,” said party MP and secretary general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
He said that the police had failed to register a case against Jasmail Singh laddi Gehri, the husband of Ferozepur Rural legislator Satkar Kaur who was said to have engineered the killings according to the victim’s family.
“This is a persistent theme in all cases of repression against Akali workers. The police fail to take any action against Congress politicians who are accused of engineering the same,” he said adding that in Ferozepur incident, the accused wanted to take over the village panchayat.
“Similarly, two days back, we had a case in which Congress MlA from Faridkot tried to take over the municipal council by getting four councillors picked up illegally from a hotel in Zirakpur,” he said.
Stating that such mayhem could only continue due to political patronage, Dhindsa said that it was condemnable that the State police was acting like the B-team of the Congress at the grass root level. “Police officers are failing to give justice to victims of Congress repression due to which such cases are on the increase,” he added.
He said that the total breakdown of the law and order situation had also given a fillip to gangsters to indulge in sensational shoot outs and dacoities.
Asking the Congress Government to pay due attention to maintain law and order, Dhindsa said that Punjab was a border State and any laxity on this front could have serious consequences.
He also asked the Congress Government to snub its leaders who were encouraging the Congress cadre to indulge in repression of Akalis with inflammatory speeches, while asking the Akali rank and file to counter all cases of repression strongly in a democratic manner.