Sikhs block Jammu-Pathankote highway, raise 'Khalistan zindabad' slogans after clashes with police

Jammu: A day after clashes with police in Jammu, Sikh protestors have blocked the Jammu-Pathankote highway. Curfew remains to be clamped in the area after one person died and 3 were injured in a police crackdown on Thursday over protests on removing posters of slain Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Schools and colleges in Jammu will be closed till Saturday to avert any untoward incidents. The Army staged flag march in parts of the city as the situation remained tense. Authorities imposed Section 144, which bars gathering of more than four persons at a place, in various parts of the city. There was no official word on reports about imposition of curfew in violence-hit areas of Satwari, Ranibangh, Chatta, and Gadigarh Miransahib.

Trouble started when hundreds of Sikh youth, armed with sticks and 'kirpans', converged on Ranibagh-Gandhigarh belt on Satwari-RS Pura road and blocked traffic in protest against the removal of Bhindranwale's posters put up by an organisation of the community ahead of his death anniversary on June 6. The mob pelted stones and police responded by cane-charging and teargas shelling in Satwari area of the city, police officials said. Some youth have been taken into custody.

Raising slogans against police and government, some protestors also tried to block the Jammu-Pathankote highway at Satwari on Thursday too. Reports said some of them also raised pro-Khalistan slogans.

Heavy contingent of police rushed to the spot and asked them remove blockade from the road and allow the traffic but sikh youth pelted stones at police, triggering clashes. The situation was tense and some people are trying to disturb the situation in Jammu, police said.

This is for the first time that posters of the slain terrorist had come up in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Sub-inspector Arun Kumar was critically wounded after he was attacked with a sharp edged weapon by some sikh youth, police said, adding he has received several stitches and is admitted in GMC hospital with two other policemen.