SAD alleges attack on Sukhbir cavalcade, blames Congress, police

Chandigarh : The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday claimed an attack by miscreants on a cavalcade of party President Sukhbir Singh Badal and blamed the ruling Congress and police for the incident.

In a statement here, former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa and other SAD leaders said: "The attack showed how desperate the Congress had become to forestall the people's movement built by the SAD which was now taking the ruling party to task and exposing its zero performance as well as zero fulfillment of promises made to the people of Punjab. The attack was carried out by the Congress in league with the police to browbeat the SAD and is a blatant attempt to disrupt the party's October 7 rally in Patiala."

Dhindsa alleged that the attack occurred after the SAD President had addressed a meeting in Sangrur. He claimed it was planned and executed with the help of Punjab Police.

He said that a handful of protesters standing beside a road were outnumbered by police present at the spot but the latter did not stop them and instead let them attack the cavalcade of Badal, who is a former Deputy Chief Minister.

The Akali leader said that the attack was a direct fallout of the success of SAD rallies in Abohar and Faridkot.

"First, the Congress announced it will not let the SAD leaders enter villages. However, when the party held successful rallies one after the other the Congress got unnerved and started hatching conspiracies against the SAD. It tried to disrupt the Faridkot rally. Now it has replicated the same strategy in Sangrur," the SAD leader said.