‘Bar on Panchkula entry could have made things worse’

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Saturday firmly defended the police action and rejected the reported lapses on the part of administration for allowing dera supporters, many of them carrying arms and stones, to assemble in Panchkula in huge numbers.

Addressing mediapersons here, chief secretary DS Dhesi, accompanied by home secretary Ram Niwas and director general of police (DGP) BS Sandhu said had the administration stopped dera followers from coming to Panchkula, the violence and damage to public and private properties would have been much more across the state.

Dhesi said police have registered two cases of sedition against dera supporters for the violence on Friday. Sandhu said an AK 47, six pistols and two rifles were recovered from a vehicle in dera head’s motorcade on Friday. He said that in all, eight FIRs have been registered against the rioters in connection with the violence, rioting and arson and 524 people arrested.

Dhesi and Sandhu said that in all 28 vehicles were set afire, besides two government offices, six private shops, a restaurant and an HDFC ATM by dera supporters in Panchkula. The state government will give full compensation to the affected people’’, Dhesi said. Regarding the Z-plus security given to the dera head, the officials claimed that it was automatically withdrawn immediately after his arrest.

“None of the injured belongs to Panchkula. Identities of those killed are being established and postmortem is being carried out to ascertain the cause of death. No resident of Panchkula is injured or killed,” he added.