FARMERS BLOCK SUNAM-BATHINDA ROAD IN CHEEMA MANDI DURING PUNJAB BANDH, DEMAND JUSTICE FOR JHOTTA

Naresh Kumar/Sangrur

Farmers, agricultural labourers, women and shopkeepers on Thursday blocked the Sunam-Bathinda road at Cheema Mandi in Sangrur district as part of the Punjab bandh call given by a committee formed to seek justice for anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhotta, who was shot dead allegedly by a chemist.

Members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Azad) led the protest, with a large number of people joining the road blockade and raising slogans against the Punjab government.

Addressing the gathering, BKU (Ekta Azad) state executive leader Jaswinder Singh Longowal alleged that the state government’s campaign against drugs had effectively turned into a campaign against the youth. He said Jhotta, who had been actively raising his voice against drug trafficking, was allegedly shot in broad daylight in a busy market by a shopkeeper accused of selling drugs.

The incident had raised serious questions about the alleged nexus between drug traffickers, the police and the government, Longowal claimed. He alleged that large-scale drug trafficking was continuing in Punjab with the alleged connivance of officials and drug peddlers, while the government was targeting drug users and vulnerable people by registering cases against them and sending them to jail in the name of its anti-drug campaign.

Longowal further alleged that people who questioned the government over the drug menace were being humiliated by Aam Aadmi Party ministers and that the government’s policies were contributing to the destruction of the state’s youth.

District executive convenor Kulwinder Soni Longowal and state women’s wing leader Baljit Kaur Kila Bharian alleged that the AAP government was avoiding its responsibility to ensure justice for Jhotta.
They accused the government of using police force to suppress the demand for justice and attempting to bring the case to a close through coercive measures. The leaders also alleged that protesters demanding justice for Jhotta had been forcibly detained at several places during Thursday’s bandh.

They said the participation of large numbers of people in protests across Punjab and the response to the bandh should serve as a warning to the state government. The leaders demanded that the government immediately accept all the demands raised by the committee formed to seek justice for Parvinder Singh Jhotta.

Among those who addressed the gathering were district leaders Jasvir Maidevas, Sant Ram Chhajli and Happy Namol, along with block-level leaders Balwinder Cheema, Mitthu Singh Tunga, Boota Singh, Gurdeep Mander Khurd, Matwal Namol and Gurcharan Singh, among others.