Hindu radicals raze 40 meat shops in Mohali

MOHALI: Around 200 members of Hindu Sangharsh Committee, a right wing organization, took law into their own hands and damaged 40 meat shops running from an illegal complex in Phase VI on the eve of Navratras on Wednesday.
The organization members claimed they had warned the owners to close their shops as a school, a temple and a hospital were situated nearby and a foul smell emanated from the area.
The right wing activists stormed the market and started the demolition exercise. They also allegedly took away chickens and goats and later announced the owners to vacate the shops. When they did so, the protesters attacked the shops with wooden sticks and iron rods.
Committee chairman Ramesh Dutt said, "We had issued many notices to these shop owners to vacate the shops. Even the Supreme Court has issued guidelines that there should be no meat or tobacco shops around 100 metres from any educational institutes." "Hindus' religious season of Navratras has begun and residents cross this road with their faces covered. These shop vendors had made the whole environment unhygienic," he added.
The meat market was located right on the Chandigarh-Mohali border.
"These shop owners were fooling the administrations of both Mohali and Chandigarh by changing their locations by 3-4 feet. If they move 4 feet forward, they came under the jurisdiction of Mohali and if they move backwards, they fall in Chandigarh. They were never penalized," said a right wing member.
More than two dozen cops, including SSP Inder Mohan Bhatti, reached the spot. The police arrested six persons. A case under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the IPC were registered on the complaint of Ajit Singh, a meat shop owner.
The SSP said, "People of all communities were running their business from these shops. We have arrested the members of the committee and a case had been lodged. We will further investigate the case as per the law."
On Tuesday, the deputy commissioner had ordered to remove the meat shops from the city as they were "polluting the environment".