Assailants identified; will be arrested soon, says police

Shimla, June 15 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh Police today claimed the people, responsible for the murder of three CITU workers on the night of June 10 at Dakog village of Chamba district, have been identified.

''The people have been identified as workers of a Pathankot-based contractor Karan Salaria and they will be arrested soon,'' state's CID Inspector General of Police (IGP) I D Bhandari said at a press conference at Chamba.

Three union activists were killed after they were allegedly beaten by men hired by a construction company following their protest against the non-implementation of the labour laws before being thrown into the Ravi River on the night of June 10.

Mr Bhandari said all the people involved in the incident were residents of Punjab and would be arrested soon.

A fourth union worker, Pramod Kumar, who escaped unhurt from the incident site, had earlier told the police that the assailants were probably from Bihar.

Meanwhile, construction work on the dam site in the district did not resume for the fifth day today with workers continuing their protest rallies and demonstrations. The state CITU unit has called a massive rally at Chamba on June 17.

UNI AS HS YA PC1933