Thursday 26 June 2008
Protest demanding the arrest of Ram Rahim for Murder of Balkar Singh
Angry Sikhs derail rail services
Thousands of commuters stranded
The rail-roko agitation by Sikh organisations against firing on Sikh protesters by a security guard of Baba Ram Rahim Singh in Mumbai threw the train traffic on Ludhiana-Amritsar and Ludhiana-Delhi sections in disarray here today.
With no train arriving from Amritsar, Jammu and Delhi side all through the day, thousands of rail passengers faced problems and uncertainty prevailed on the railway station.
According to information at the Ludhiana railway station, several trains like Amritsar-New Delhi Shatabdi Express, Amritsar-Bandra Pashchim Express, Jan Shatabdi, Amritsar-Darbhanga Express, Jammu-Mumbai Superfast Express and Jammu-Indore Malwa Express were detained by protesting Sikhs at Amritsar and Jalandhar.
Similarly, most of the Amritsar and Jammu-bound UP trains were held up midway at Ambala and Sirhind while some trains were terminated at Delhi itself to save the passengers from inconvenience.
The routine hustle and bustle, witnessed at the railway station from where some 36 trains passed out during the day, was missing and the platforms, as also the booking windows, wore a deserted look. The disruption of train movement during the period of protest (from 9 am to 7 pm) also affected the vendors and stalls of eatables who had to miss out on their sale of snacks and beverages.
Intending rail passengers, who had booked their journey tickets in advance for today, remained a confused lot as no information about running of trains in the evening or late night was made available to them at the railway enquiry or reservation counters.
According to station superintendent Ashok Salaria, 3005 UP Howrah-Amritsar Mail and 1057 Dadar-Amrtisar Express trains, which had arrived at the Ludhiana railway station, were terminated here and full refund of fare for the journey from Ludhiana to Amrtisar, was given to passengers.
The Howrah-Amrtisar Mail will commence its return journey to Howrah from Ludhiana this evening on the scheduled time while the other train might resume its journey to Amritsar late in the evening.
Players of four teams of different states, participating in the national 20-20 tournament here were stranded as they postponed their train journey and got their reservation cancelled due to uncertainty of rail traffic and fearing eruption of violence during the protest.
A large number of volunteers of Sikh bodies had blocked railway tracks on the Ludhiana-Ferozepur section near Mullanpur in this district for several hours and disrupted the rail traffic.
A group of Sikh Students Federation (Grewal) workers burnt an effigy of Baba Ram Rahim Singh on Gill Road while activists of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amrtisar) blocked vehicular traffic at Jamalpur on Ludhiana-Chandigarh Road for over two hours.
Meanwhile, the United Church of Northern India, at its meeting, condemned the firing in Mumbai and demanded immediate arrest of the self-styled baba. The meeting also demanded adequate compensation to the kin of the dead and those injured in the firing.