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After keeping away, SGPC rushes to join train shut down
WSN Network

LUDHIANA: Seething with rage and angry at the Indian Government's utter disinclination to even acknowledge the hurt and pain that the Sikh community went through as a collective in the last 25 years, several groups of Sikhs brough rail traffic in Punjab to a halt on November 6.

The Amritsar-New Delhi section was severely affected on Friday morning as protesters, seeking justice for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms, stopped trains at various places.

Reeling under shame for having stayed away from the Punjab Bandh call of November 3 that was given by the Dal Khalsa and other panthic organisations, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee this time supported the "rail roko" protests.

The call for Friday's Rail Roko was given by the Danga Peerat Welfare Organisation, Danga Peerat Association and Dal Khalsa Sikh Students Federation (Mehta Group). All three bodies normally derive strength from being close to the ruling Akali Dal of Prakash Singh Badal and usually are seen as commanded by the Akalis.

Compared to the November 3 bandh, this was not a widespread shut down and lacked local and wide support but because of stoppage of trains, it did make headlines. Protesters, including women and children, raised slogans against the government by sitting and lying on the tracks.

Harnam Singh Dhumma of Damdami Taksal and SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar were seen together on the railway tracks at an impromptu rally, but Makkar did not explain why the SGPC had not lent its support to an earlier bandh to which the Sikh community responded so strongly.

11 November  2009
 

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