Withdraw all cross-cases against Dalits within a week: SAD to Congress

Setting a week’s deadline for the Congress-led Punjab Government, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday warned of holding a state-level agitation if cross-cases against the Dalits were not withdrawn.

The party has asked the Government to withdraw all cross cases registered against Dalits who were attacked and fired upon by Punjab’s Shiv Sena when they had peacefully congregated to rename the Gol Chowk in Phagwara as Samvidhan Chowk.

The word of caution was issued by the SAD’s scheduled caste wing, which also demanded immediate arrest of “all perpetrators of the ghastly unprovoked attacked on dalits on April 13”.

A case had been registered against 16 persons but only four of them had been arrested till now, pointed SAD’s SC wing head Gulzar Singh Ranike, while addressing the media along with party’s senior leaders Sohan Singh Thandal, Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal, Mohinder Kaur Josh and Pawan Kumar Tinu.

Ranike also demanded that the Congress Government also act against all Shiv Sena leaders who had “instigated” the attack against the dalit community and withdraw all gunmen and escort vehicles given to them.

“The licenses of Shiv Sena leaders should be withdrawn and their weapons should be permanently confiscated,” demanded Ranike adding that it should also be ascertained why a plethora of gunmen had been given to such persons and the officers responsible for this should also be proceeded against.

The party leaders maintained that attacks against the dalit community were on the rise.

“In another incident, a government doctor had publicaly abused and severely beaten up a dalit woman who had gone to him for medicine,” they added.

“All these incidents are occurring due to anti-dalit mindset of the Congress party as well as its leaders. We are giving the Government one week time to take concrete action in all these cases, following which, we will launch a state wide agitation to ensure justice to the victims,” the leaders added.