Chandigarh: The windows of a Srinagar-bound bus were smashed and a passenger was hurt Saturday night after the vehicle was allegedly attacked at a dhaba in Haryana’s Karnal district.
The bus, with a Jammu and Kashmir registration plate, was on its way from Delhi to Srinagar. The attack took place around 10 pm outside the Divine Star dhaba near Nilokheri, under the Butana police station of Karnal. The nature of the attack, however, remains in dispute. While Jammu & Kashmir’s ruling National Conference and the bus driver alleged it was a hate crime, Karnal Police said the attack was triggered by an altercation over parking.
A video shared on X purportedly showed the aftermath of the attack.
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‘Won’t allow J&K vehicle to be parked here’
Speaking to ANI, Waqar, the bus driver, alleged that the men who attacked the bus targeted it because of its J&K registration.
Waqar said he had stopped the bus at Divine Star dhaba in Nilokheri, past Karnal, for dinner. “Some men were sitting in the parking area. A Baleno with a Haryana number was already parked there,” he said.
“About a minute after I parked, someone shouted from nearby, ‘Atankwadi, get your vehicle out of here’. I asked him what the matter was. He said, ‘Move it, quickly. You can’t park here. We won’t allow a vehicle from J&K to be parked here.’”
Waqar said the man then hit the front windshield and began beating him. “They first smashed the front number plate, then the rear one. Others joined in. They kept saying a J&K vehicle had no business in Haryana,” he said.
The driver also alleged that the men threatened the passengers. “They said, ‘We will shoot you, we will set the vehicle on fire, we will kill you,’” he said.
Waqar said “such hooliganism must stop”. “We want justice… We all use the roads. Vehicles from their side come to our region too. This only creates a hostile atmosphere for both sides,” he added.
Contacted by The Print Sunday, Karnal Superintendent of Police (SP) Karan Goel, however, said it was a dispute over parking, and the incident had nothing to do with any kind of hate crime.
SP Goel said the police received information Saturday night about a fight between the driver of a bus and a private car near the dhaba. A team from Butana police station reached the spot and found the bus windows broken, he added.
The car, a white Maruti Baleno, was at the spot, as were its driver Mohit and his companion Sawan, who allegedly had an altercation with the bus driver over parking.
The SP said the CCTV footage of the dhaba confirmed that the car was parked when the bus came there and partially blocked its exit. The car driver, Mohit, who is believed to have been drunk, instead of manoeuvring his way, picked a quarrel with the bus driver and was soon joined by Sawan.
Mohit and Sawan allegedly broke the bus windows, and a passenger was injured.
The SP said the police took Mohit and Sawan and three persons from the bus to the police station, where the two sides settled the matter, and the bus left for Srinagar after the dhaba owner assured that he would compensate the bus owner for the damage.
He said no formal complaint was made at the time.
By Sunday morning, however, the incident had reached Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who posted on X that it “should never have taken place”. He said he hoped the Haryana government, led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and Haryana Police would catch the culprits and ensure such incidents did not recur.
Imran Nabi Dar, national spokesperson of Abdullah’s Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, went further. In his post, he said stones and bricks were pelted at the bus near Kurukshetra in an “alleged hate crime”. He said an elderly Kashmiri man was injured, adding that families on board were left “helpless and terrified”. He asked Haryana Police to identify the culprits and act.
Following Abdullah’s X post, the SP said he himself visited the dhaba and watched the CCTV footage to make sure that it was a case of an altercation over parking, as the Butana police station had told him, and not a case of hate crime.
“We tried to contact the bus driver and its passengers but their mobile phones were not reachable. After this, the police obtained a complaint from the dhaba owner and arrested Mohit and Sawan after booking them for causing hurt, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint,” said Goel.
Police have also seized the car.
‘Don’t pay attention to rumours’
In a press release issued Sunday, the Karnal Police said the preliminary inquiry found no “hate crime” angle and nothing to suggest animosity towards people of any state or region. It also appealed to people not to believe or share unverified posts on social media.
“We appeal to the public not to pay attention to rumours being spread on social media and to avoid sharing any unverified information,” the Karnal Police spokesperson said. “Karnal Police is committed to maintaining law and order and ensuring the safety of all citizens.”
Edited by Sunanda Ranjan