Ahead of the 30th death anniversary of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale on June 6, a sikh youth was killed while a dozen others, including three policemen, were injured in violent clashes on the airport road in Rani Bagh area of Jammu on Thursday.
The violent clashes were triggered after local policemen allegedly removed king size posters of Bhindrawale put up by his sympathisers on the second consecutive day.
Bhindrawale was killed by the Indian Army during operation Blue Star inside Golden temple in Amritsar in 1984. The same group had organised a function on June 6 to mark the occasion and pay tributes to victims of 1984 sikh riots as well.
Following deteriorating law and order situation, the district administration imposed a curfew in worst hit areas of Ranibagh, Gaddigarh and Chatha falling under Satwari police station on late Thursday evening.
Jammu airport is also located in the same area. Through out the day, commuters faced lot of hardships as traffic remained blocked on the busy road. Army was also called in by the district administration late in the evening to carry out Flag March on Satwari-RS Pura road to restore order on ground zero. Tension prevailed in some other areas of the city with majority sikh population.
Protesters also blocked traffic on the Jammu-Pathankot highway near Rajbagh to register their protest after a sikh youth was killed in the police firing. The district administration was in touch with prominent sikh leaders to restore order at the earliest.
The situation in the area was tense since Wednesday morning but it suddenly took an ugly turn late Thursday after large number of agitated sikh youth attacked police personnel with sharp edged weapons and pelted stones from nearby rooftops and thickly populated bylanes in Rani Bagh area. To contain the deteriorating law and order situation policemen used teargas to disperse the mob.
As the situation remained tense and ding dong battles continued police had to open fire on the protesting youth in which one youth identified as Jagjit Singh of Chowalla village in RS Pura received bullet injures.He later succumbed to his injuries. During the violent protests the agitating youth shouted pro Khalistan movement slogans much to the chagrin of law enforcing agencies.
On Wednesday a junior police officer also received injuries after he was thrashed and later stabbed by the agitating youth in the middle of the road using sharp edged weapon. His subordinates and others saved him from the fury of sikh youth. local residents in the area had earlier sought an unconditional apology from the police officer for removing the posters.
Expressing deep sorrow and anguish over the loss of a precious human life during protests by the members of the Sikh community in Jammu, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Thurday said while it is the responsibility of the police to maintain law and order, but at the same time Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) should be strictly adhered to avoid such tragedies during public protests.