Chandigarh: Rail services on Wednesday were suspended in Punjab with five long distance passenger and two goods trains being stopped midway to their destinations as Sikhs protesting the Mumbai firing incident blocked rail tracks.
The Railways said that at least 14 trains were cancelled in view of the protests and others were terminated before their final destinations.
Hundreds of pilgrims on way to Vaishnodevi and Amarnath shrines in Jammu and Kashmir were also left stranded after a train from Jabalpur to Jammu-Tawi was stopped at Chaheru in Phagwara.
The two goods trains were stopped at Amritsar and Madhopur near Sirhind.
The rail blockade call was given by radical Sikh groups, including the Damdami Taksal, and the SAD (Amritsar) to demand the arrest of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for the death of a community member who was allegedly shot by his bodyguard in Mumbai last week.
Protesters squatted on the track at several places, including Amritsar, Madhopur (Sirhind), Malout, Abohar, Moga, Sangrur, Mullanpur (Ludhiana) and Rajpura.
At Madhopur, around 400 Sikhs led by Damdami Taksal chief Baba Harnam Singh, SAD (Amritsar) president Daljit Singh Bittu sat on the tracks between Delhi, Amritsar and Jammu, disrupting the movement of trains.
In Amritsar, a large number of youths of the Taksal carried swords in their hands and portraits of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and blocked rail tracks at different railway crossings.
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