AGENCY
Phagwara: Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Surakhsha Samiti (ABHSS) on Tuesday burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti at Sugar Mill crossing on National Highway 1 here, prompting authorities to make a minor diversion in the route of Lahore-bound Indo-Pak Sada-e-Sarhad international bus to avoid the protest site.
However, the Delhi-bound Lahore-New Delhi bus followed its normal route as it came much later, police said.
Police said the Lahore-bound bus was diverted from Hargobindnagar locality to Phagwara-Banga road near Mehli village. From thereon, it travelled on the Phagwara bypass till Mehli-Mehtan village where it came back on NH 1, thus skirting the protest venue on NH1, they said. Since the other bus came after the protest time, it took its normal route, they said.
Meanwhile, led by ABHSS’s Punjab chief Deepak Bhardwaj, the protesters stopped some trucks coming from Jammu and Kashmir for some time and allegedly warned the drivers that in case Amarnath Yatra was again disrupted in their state, they should not come to Punjab.
They raised slogans against the J&K government, terrorists and Pakistan.
Addressing the protesters, Bhardwaj alleged that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had “failed” to maintain the regular flow of the Yatra as her party PDP was “hand in gloves” with terrorists and their Pakistan sponsors.
He demanded dismissal of the Mehbooba government and dismantling of terrorists camps in POK through military strikes.
