Nawanshahr (Des Raj Bali):- Nawanshahr observed a complete shutdown today in response to the Punjab bandh call given by the action committee to protest the murder of Parminder Singh Jhota, who had raised his voice against drug abuse in Mansa. The shutdown was called by CPI (ML) New Democracy, CPI, RMPI and IFTU.
It is worth mentioning that the Beopar Mandal had already held a meeting following the appeal of the organisations and announced that shops would remain closed. Early in the morning, a large number of workers and leaders of the above-mentioned parties and organisations gathered at the local auto stand and took out a march through the city's main markets.
On this occasion, Kulwinder Singh Waraich, Jasbir Deep, Comrade Niranjan Das Mehli, Jaswinder Singh Bhangal, Kuldeep Singh Doraka, Jasvir Singh Moron, Auto Union district president Puneet Kumar Bachhauri, Migrant Workers Union district president Parveen Kumar Nirala, Kirti Kisan Union district president Surinder Singh Bains, Rural Workers Union leader Kamaljit Sanawa, state leaders of the Pensioners' Union Kulwinder Singh Atwal and Vijay Kumar, and Street Vendors' Union president Hare Ram addressed the gathering.
The leaders said that the Mann government's campaign, “War Against Drugs,” had proved to be a failure. They claimed that young people were dying daily from overdoses and that the police were forcing families to cremate the deceased without conducting post-mortems.
They alleged that politicians, police personnel and drug traffickers across Punjab were working together in a nexus to run the drug trade and make huge profits. They said that by murdering Parminder Singh Jhota, drug traffickers had attempted to silence voices rising against drug smuggling, but those voices would not be silenced.
The leaders said that a people's movement would have to be built to break the network behind the drug trade and appealed to the public to come forward and join the effort.
