Youth Beaten by Police While

Hoshiarpur / Daljeet Ajnoha/June 08 : In recent days, instead of listening to or addressing the legitimate demands of apprentice linemen working at the electricity board, the Punjab Police reportedly acting on directions from the state government unleashed excessive and inhumanly swift violence on the country’s youth. Many injured protesters were repeatedly kicked and beaten with batons and left sprawled on the roads. The incident has drawn sharp condemnation across Punjab, the country and among justice-seeking people worldwide, with calls for departmental inquiries and legal action against the vindictive police officers and personnel involved.
Talwinder Singh Heer (Nangal Khilarian), publicity secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Hoshiarpur district, said that the batons of corrupt and arrogant police officers are always used against ordinary people, while useless and looter politicians who ruin the country and Punjab are openly allowed to escape humiliation and are protected. He recalled a recent episode in which Union minister Ravneet Bittu allegedly mistreated a female district police chief; the minister reportedly shoved the officer despite her wearing the uniform. When an inspector attempted to reason with him, the minister responded with a highly provocative casteist remark, and thereafter an apparent, planned attempt to foment communal discord took place. Neither the police, the judiciary nor the government appears to have paid attention to the viral videos that clearly show senior officers who are meant to uphold the dignity of the uniform being humiliated, and no action was taken against the disgraced minister; not even a warning was issued at the time.
Now, when educated and capable young unarmed workers were peacefully demonstrating to press their legitimate demands, senior police officers reportedly began lashing out at them like predators. Instead of offering help to the wounded, authorities allegedly threatened to ruin their futures; distressed young men were seen crying and shouting in pain before cameras. The episode has eroded public trust in both the police and the government.
All pro-justice public organizations have strongly condemned the police baton charge on the electricity employees and demanded strict action against the guilty officers and immediate acceptance of the workers’ demands. Farmer leader Talwinder Singh Heer said that every possible assistance would be provided to the employees harassed by the electricity department and the governments, and that any form of state police thuggery and atrocity will be resisted firmly.