Gurdaspur, Sept 09: Several activists of BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) today started a "chain hunger strike" here to protest registration of criminal case against the workers and leaders of the two parties during Nau Sehra Pattan rally on August 20. Former BJP minister Satya Pal Saini alongwith 20 activists belonging to the Sujanpur Assembly constituency started the chain hunger strike at Hanuman Chowk as the first batch, while former BJP minister master Mohan Lal would sit on the strike tomorrow.

Saini and Lal had, in this connection, offered court arrests at Pathankot town yesterday. Talking to reporters, BJP district president Bal Kishan Mittal threatened to continue the strike if the state government failed to withdraw the case and release their workers who were lodged in Gurdaspur jail.

Atleast 21 activists of BJP and SAD have been booked by police and five of them have been arrested on charges of pelting stones and attempt to murder police personnel during a rally by Union Minister Vinod Khanna at Nau Sehra Pattan to inaugurate a bridge on Beas river on August 20.

Bureau Report