2 masked miscreants vandalise HRTC bus in Kharar
According to the police, the two men who had stationed their Alto car at the flyover near Shivjot Enclave, stopped the bus ferrying around 20 passengers around 7 pm.
Amid the controversy that erupted following display of flags carrying slain militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s pictures on the vehicle of a Punjabi tourist in Himachal Pradesh’s Manali and its removal by local residents, two masked miscreants vandalised a bus of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) on the Kharar flyover on Tuesday.
According to the police, the two men who had stationed their Alto car at the flyover near Shivjot Enclave, stopped the bus ferrying around 20 passengers around 7 pm.
“The bus was heading to Himachal Pradesh from Chandigarh. The duo had covered their faces and also hid the number plates with red tape to avoid being caught by CCTV cameras near the spot. They stopped the bus and vandalised the front mirror with sticks. Luckily no passenger was hurt. The accused fled the spot after the cowardly attack”, a police officer said.
After the driver of the bus, Raj Kumar, informed the police control room (PCR), the Kharar police reached the spot and also got the traffic cleared.
“Since there were passengers in the bus plying from Chandigarh to Hamirpur, bearing HP67 A1321 number, we didn’t stop the vehicle so that passengers should not face any inconvenience. We have already made teams to trace the accused as there is zero tolerance for any such hate crime,” a police officer privy to the matter said.
Meanwhile, Kharar DSP Karan Sandhu said that a case has been registered against unidentified persons at City Kharar police station.
A row had erupted after a group of youths from Punjab, displaying flags featuring Bhindranwale’s photo on their bikes in Manali, faced backlash from the locals recently.
Taking strict note of the incident of the locals reportedly tearing the flags carrying Bhindranwale’s picture, Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj said this kind of treatment will not be accepted and urged the HP chief minister to maintain communal harmony.
