CHANDIGARH: Punjab, once the most prosperous state went through another traumatic year which saw the death of a record number of 3,775 people in violence, reports PTI.
The militant’s movement, which according to official figures began in 1980 during the Congress l regime of Darbara Singh government, rocked Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
This led to the massive deployment of paramilitary forces in the last week of December following a review of the situation at the prime ministers level recently.
It was for the first time in the history of the city that the local situation was reviewed exclusively at the highest level and decision taken to deploy additional forces.
Among The major incidents in the union territory a senior Akali Dal leader, Mr Balwant Singh, the co-architect of the Rajiv Longowal accord, was gunned down in broad day light on July 11. Twelve days later the chief engineer and the superintending engineer, Mr M L Sekhri and Mr AS Aulakh respectively of the controve their office.
Besides, Mr Ranjit Singh Riar, president, L project were shot Chandigarh Akali Dal (B), Mr R K Talib, station director, All India Radio (AIR), Chandigarh, Bhai Bakhshish Singh, a former granthi of the Golden Temple, Amritsar and six anti-reservationists were among the 25 persons gunned down in the city during the year.
The city for the first time in its history observed a 72 hour bandh at the call of the Akali Dal (Mann) from August 11 to protest the non-acceptance of various demands, including release of detained Sikhs and rehabilitation of army deserters, Punjab was ruled by three governors during this year 1990. When the year commenced, Nirmal Mukherjee occupied the Raj Bhawan and stayed in office till June 14, when Mr Virendra Verma took over before the year could end, Mr Verma was shifted to Himachal Pradesh on December 17 and in his place, former chief of Army staff, Gen (Retd.) O P Malhotra took over the state
Besides the spate of killings, Punjab as a whole and cities separately, especially those located in the border belt, observed Bandh for a number of days to protest various issues, including the killings of militants in fake encounters,
Police claimed that it had eliminated a number of area commanders of various militant bodies, including the Khalistan Commando Force, Khalistan Liberation Force and the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan.
About 275 militants, described by the police as hard core, were among the 1,275 militants killed in various police encounters during the year. Police claimed that the number of militants killed during 1990 was the highest in the decade with the previous highest figure being about 700 militants in 1989.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 4, 1991
