Jalandhar: California (US) based Gurdeep Kaur who was travelling to IGI Airport Delhi with his nephew Satbir Singh, was amongst the hapless victims, who witnessed the unruly mob on the National highway.
Recounting the highway horror in Murthal (Haryana), Adampur-based man Satbir Singh Satti on Saturday claimed that he heard stranded people talking about ‘girls’ or ‘women’ being taken away by hooligans on February 21 midnight.
Satbir, who too was fending for himself along with three of his relatives on National Highway-1 at around 1:30 am, said that around 150 people were running helter-skelter in the dark, when the mob ran after them. “The mob, which was 50 in number, was carrying sharp-edged weapons, pelted stones at us and burnt my Maruti Ertiga car,” he said with moist eyes. Notably, reports of alleged sexual assault of women in Murthal (Haryana) surfaced on February 22 during the Jat agitation, which has put the Haryana government in the dock. The undergarments of women were found in the fields near Hasanpur village in Sonepat.
Talking to Media, the victim said that at the Truck Wala Dhaba, around 250 to 300 people were heard discussing that how girls were dragged out of the vehicles and taken away by the mob. However, he denied having seen any girl taken away by the mob. “I was not a witness to that incident, when the girls were taken away”, he said. Satbir said that that the stranded people at the dhaba hailed from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. “If women undergarments have been found in the fields, then definitely some crime must have taken place. And, I request the victims to come forward to highlight their plight,” he added.
Corroborating the horror, he said, “I noticed two young NRI girls from Calgary and Edmonton in Canada, who were running barefoot without ‘duppatta’. Their purses were also left in the car, which was burnt by the mob. The girls were left wailing and running helter-skelter till they reached Truck Wala Dhaba, where we all spent the night praying before the Almighty.” “Somehow, both the girls managed to find a safe shelter in ‘Truck Wala Dhaba’ which was around 500 metres away from Sukhdev-Amrik Dhaba”, he said.
Satbir, who had gone to drop his California (US) based maternal aunt (Maasi) Gurdeep Kaur to IGI Airport Delhi was among the hapless victims, who witnessed the unruly mob on the highway. “My aunt was left crying, as her entire luggage was burnt in the car. Thankfully, she had managed to bring her purse from the car, which carried her passport. We spent the night praying for our lives at the Truck Wala Dhaba”, he said. To a query that whether he heard the victims talk about how many girls were being taken away, Satbir said, “All that I heard, people talking about was that ‘girls’ have been taken away. The number of girls and where were they taken was not being heard.” Satbir along with his maternal aunt, uncle and his son-in-law had started for Delhi on February 21, after which they were stuck at Murthal. He said that the next morning an Inspector General (IG) rank officer along with the local Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and a battery of police reached the dhaba and took them to a ground, from where they left for the airport.
My Masi left for US the same morning, vowing never to come back to India again”, he added.“