Chandigarh: Tension gripped Nangal village of Jalandhar’s Phillaur subdivision on Monday after some unidentified members of the banned terror outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) vandalised the glass shield installed around the statue of B R Ambedkar, a legal luminary and the architect of the Constitution of India.
The incident was noticed early this morning when the residents of the village noticed that pro-Khalistan and anti-Constitution slogans had been spray-painted on the glass-shield of the statue. A banner of the SFJ was also found to have been put up there.
Police said that SFJ chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun who took the responsibility for the said vandalism, said that ``it’s just a trailer’’ also threatened to remove all Ambedkar statues from Punjab before his birth anniversary on April 14.
Meanwhile, stating that a heavy police bandobust has been made in the village as a large number of members of Dalit community had gathered on the spot, police said that CCTV footages of the area were being scanned to identify the accused.
However, according to media reports, Dalit leaders of the area have given a 24-hour ultimatum to the police to nab the accused. They held that it was not the first time such an incident had taken place and referred to a similar incident that took place in Amritsar about two months ago. It may be recalled that a miscreant had climbed atop a statue of Ambedkar on Heritage Street in Amritsar and tried to vandalise it in January, but was nabbed by police. The incident had, however, triggered outrage.
Pertinently, Dalits constitute about 32% of the total population in Punjab while the national average of the same is about 16.6%; also Doaba region – which includes Jalandhar district – has a sizable Dalit population.
