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Asserting the situation in the state was under control, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said on Monday that the violence sparked by the killing of a Sikh sect leader in Austria was confined only to a few pockets in Jalandhar and neighbouring areas.
"The situation is normal. There is no violence at this moment. Some incidents which took place today were limited to a few pockets, mostly in Jalandhar," he told a joint press conference with his son and Deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal in Chandigarh.
The chief minister said one person was killed in a shooting incident in Jalandhar's Lambra village while seven were injured in violence elsewhere in the state since last night. Strongly condemning the killing of Sant Rama Nand in fighting between rival Sikh communities in Austrian capital Vienna, he said his government would leave no stone unturned in restoring calm in the state.
"We have already deployed 40 armed battalions of the Punjab Armed Police to deal with the situation. We have also sought 25 companies of para-military forces from the Centre," Badal said. "The Army has been asked to stand by and will be called out whenever required. Army has conducted flag marches in parts of Jalandhar to instill a sense of confidence among people," he said.
Badal said his government would recommend to the Election Commission to defer the Nurmahal assembly by-election slated for May 28 as the segment falls in trouble-torn Jalandhar. The concerned Deputy Commissioner had also recommended to the state government that holding of the election at this stage was not feasible, the CM said.
Badal said he spoke to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Monday and requested him to take up the matter with his counterpart in Austria. Badal said Sant Surinder Dass, a close associate of Guru Rama Nand, had appealed to people to maintain peace in the state.
"Peace and communal harmony in Punjab will be maintained and no one will be allowed to take law in his own own hands,"he said. The Chief Minister said he had convened an all-party meeting in Chandigarh on Tuesday in the light of today's incidents.
The CM said he would appeal to all Punjabis to stay calm and help maintain peace in the state. Badal also appealed to the media to exercise restraint and sought their co-operation in reporting the incidents so that the situation does not flare up.
"Sab say bada reham aap kar sakte hein (you in the media can play big role in the present situation)," he said. Condemning the Vienna incident, he said those who were behind it were "enemies of peace and could be anti-Indian". Asked which all places curfew had been imposed, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the prohibitory orders had been clamped in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Phagwara and parts of Hoshiarpur.
Sukhbir said there had been no shoot-at-sight orders as such, but officers on the ground would assess the situation. On the bandh call by SAD, he said, "this is to express sympathy and solidarity with victims of the Vienna incident". Asked if there had been a delay in deploying forces, Sukhbir said: "to mobilise forces needs reaction time.
Deployment of para-military forces also takes about 10-12 hours and till the time we got these we mobilised our own forces". He said there were rumours that three persons were killed in Punjab in acts of violence, which is not true. "Such rumours don't help the situation." When asked about Congress spokesman Manish Tewari's reported statement that Centre had put all help at Punjab's disposal including providing helicopters to deal with the situation, Sukhbir said, "we have not been given any helicopters".