Shimla, March 19 (IANS) State-run Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) on Wednesday suspended bus service on at least 10 routes in Punjab after two of its buses were damaged by miscreants in two days.

Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu informed the Assembly that he talked to his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Maan, who assured him of strict action against the miscreants. “A DGP-level officer will discuss to take action on the issue,” the Chief Minister said, adding police security, if needed, would be provided to the public transport buses.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who holds the Transport portfolio, said in the House that the government was in touch with the Punjab government and administration over the attacks. “The state government has deployed corporation officials at all important bus stands in Punjab to monitor the situation,” he said.

He said that miscreants travelling in a car without a number plate in Kharar stopped an HRTC bus and broke windowpanes on Tuesday. “An FIR (first information report) has been registered at the police station in Kharar and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Mohali has said that security will be provided to our buses,” he said.

A day earlier, a similar incident occurred near Sirhind where masked miscreants pelted stones at an HRTC bus. The attack on HRTC buses comes in the wake of the controversy over the display of flags carrying slain militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s pictures on a vehicle of a tourist from Punjab in Himachal’s tourist resort Manali that faced backlash from locals.

Taking a serious view of the incident of the locals reportedly tearing the flags carrying Bhindranwale’s picture, Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj has said that this kind of treatment “will not be accepted and urged the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister to maintain communal harmony”.

–IANS

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