As many as 52 petrol bombs, .12 bore gun, a revolver, and other weapons were recovered as the Statewide search operations were continued on Monday in Punjab in the wake of the announcement of quantum of sentence to controversial Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
To maintain law and order, the Punjab Police has made 62 preventive arrests, besides arresting 133 people in 66 separate cases since the special CBI court verdict against the Dera head on August 25.
Out of total, 54 arrests have been made and 19 cases have been registered under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), for disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant. Other than that, 47 cases have been registered under other sections with a total of 336 persons named as accused while 79 have been arrested.
Maximum 26 arrests have been made in Mansa, followed by 23 each in Sangrur, Bathinda, and Ferozepur.
In Malout town of Muktsar district, as many as 25 petrol bombs, two sharp edged weapons, chilli powder have been found from abandoned bags near a marriage palace on Friday. Police also rounded up a few persons in Patiala. The police has arrested nine persons owing allegiance to Dera Sacha Sauda in Ferozepur. Besides, all Naam Charcha ghars have also been sealed by Ferozepur district authorities.
As a preventive measure, the government announced curfew at many places across the state including 11 villages bordering Haryana till further orders.
Curfew was imposed strictly with almost no movement of people in Faridkot district at Kotkapura, Jaiton and Faridkot towns from 8 am.
Police even stopped all vehicular traffic movement on busy Amritsar-Bathinda-Faridkot and Kotkapura road. The Police also blocked Faridkot -Muktsar-Ferozepur-Guruharsahai road. In Patiala too, the curfew was declared in the afternoon.
Consequent upon the prevailing situation in the State of Punjab, the counselling for the admission to MBBS/BDS seats under NEET 2017, which was scheduled to be held on August 29 at Faridkot, stands postponed. The last date for joining the allotted colleges or courses after second round of online counselling is also extended till further orders.