Agitators burn effigies of Sukhbir, Makkar in Haryana

Ambala, May 10 (UNI) Despite heavy police presence at Manji Sahib Gurudwara here, the pro-Haryana Gurudwara Management Committee Sikhs today held demonstration and burnt Sukhbir Badal, working president Shiromani Akali Dal and A.S. Makkar, president SGPC in effigy for opposing Haryana's demand.

The slogan shouting demonstrators, led by the Haryana Adhoc Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee president Jagdish Singh Jhinda and Senior Vice President Khushpal Singh Batrohan, were however, not allowed to reach the entrance of the Gurudwara where the Akali leaders from Punjab were scheduled to address the community meeting.

The demonstrators, who had come to show black flags and burn Sukhbir Badal and Makkar in effigy were disappointed when Mr Sukhdev Badal did not turn up as per schedule because of his preoccupation today.

They however, continued to shout slogans demanding that Badal and others should not be allowed to enter Haryana as ''they were trying to create a division among the Sikhs of the state regarding their demand for separate gurudwara management committee''.

Later, addressing the sangat at the Gurudwara, Mr Makkar and other Akali Leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Prof Prem Singh Chandumajara criticised the Haryana Congress government for dividing the Sikhs by ''fomenting the demand for separate GPC for the state through a handful of misguided Sikhs.

The demand, they asserted, could not be fulfilled under the SGPC Constitution.

UNI