FIR registered against unidentified persons for attack on state BJP chief

HOSHIARPUR: Police on Tuesday registered an FIR against unidentified persons for attacking the car of Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma at Cholang toll plaza on Jalandhar-Pathankot highway on Monday night.

At least 25 people allegedly carrying kisan union flags had attacked Sharma’s car and broke the front and rear windshields, though the BJP’s state chief called it an attack by the Congress government.

The police procured the CCTV footage of the incident from Cholang toll plaza which showed some flag-bearing persons charging towards Sharma’s car as it slowed down. But none of the attackers was identified.

BJP workers staged a protest in front of mini secretariat against the attack.

No place for violence in democracy: Sukhbir

Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the attack on Sharma, stating that there was no place for violence in democracy. In a statement, Sukhbir called the attack the work of “anti-social forces who wanted to sabotage the ongoing kisan agitation against the agricultural marketing laws”.

He also asked the Congress government to come down heavily on anti-social forces that were being used to defame the farmers’ cause. “

The SAD’s legislative wing asked Vidhan Sabha speaker Rana KP Singh to call a special emergency session to enact new legislation to make the entire state a “single marketing yard”, annul the amended APMC Act of 2017, and announce that three central agriculture laws will not be implemented in Punjab.