

Ludhiana: While cops are still groping in the dark about the assailants involved in three different incidents of firing in the city in last one month, city police has invited the wrath of right wing activists and kin of the victims for its failure to nab culprits.

Of the three incidents of firing -- two on the members of the right-wing organizations -- occurred in the past three weeks, in which cops failed to get any leads. All that police could find was that it was not the handiwork of a particular gang or group, claiming the recent firing on a bakery owner was because of personal enmity.

On January 18, two unidentified miscreants had opened fire at 35-year-old Naresh Kumar, 'mukhya shikshak' (main teacher) of an RSS shakha at Shaheed Park in Kidwai Nagar here, before the shakha was to start in the early morning. On February 3, Amit Arora, a youth president of Shiv Sena Punjab had received serious bullet injuries after motorcycle-borne miscreants fired at him near Basti Jodhewal Chowk late in the evening. When the third incident of firing on Joginder Pal Dang of Kot Alamgir near Civil Hospital, aged between 65 and 70 years, who owns Sanjiv Bakery at Amarpura occurred on Thursday, many suspected it could be part of the attacks on the right-wing group activists. However, family members and police have ruled that out, as Pal is in no way associated with any such group. Cops investigating the case too have ruled out any similarity between three cases.

Vijay Kumar Dang, nephew of Joginder Pal Dang, said: "My uncle has never been associated with RSS or Shiv Sena or any such group. How could anyone attack him, as he hardly has any enemies."

"Even as two incidents, RSS 'shakha' firing and gunshot fired at a bakery owner, occurred in areas which are close by, there is no link between these incidents. Our investigation suggests that the bakery owner case has a personal enmity angle," said Avtar Singh, SHO Division Number Two police station.

He added that even as the weapon used in the RSS Shakha attack was a 9mm pistol, the same may not be true for the second attack, even as a bullet has been sent to the forensic lab for checking.

Meanwhile, activists of right-wing organizations are circulating messages in the social networking sites, and groups linking the attack on the RSS shakha and Shiv Sena Punjab leader. "Till now, the culprits of two attacks have not been identified, which is unfortunate," said Rajiv Tandon, chairman of Shiv Sena Punjab, while expressing concern over the safety of residents. He added that the police should identify the accused and arrest them as early as possible.

Claiming that attacks on the RSS shakha member in Kidwai Nagar and the Shiv Sena Punjab Youth president were an attempt to make the followers of one particular community feel unsafe and insecure, messages on social media by the righ wings have blamed cops for their failure.

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Experts visit crime scene

The police meanwhile added that they were conducting thorough investigations and likely get clues soon.

While forensic experts from the Punjab Police Academy (PPA), Phillaur, inspected the crime scene where Pal was attacked on Thursday and collected evidence, a team of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) had also visited Subhash Nagar in the city last week, where Amit Arora was allegedly fired at. The same weapon (9mm pistol) was allegedly used by unidentified miscreants to fire at an RSS shakha in a park at Kidwai Nagar on January 18, and Shiv Sena Punjab Youth president Amit Arora on February 3. Whereas the distance between the two crime spots (RSS shakha and bakery shop) is around a kilometre, the third crime spot at Subhash Nagar is around 4-5km.



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