BJP leaders heading to Nakodar to show black flags to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over incessant power cuts were detained by the Jalandhar police on Sunday.

A peaceful protest had been organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lambra Mandal, led by senior leader Mandeep Bakshi, to show black flags to the Chief Minister against the escalating power outages in Punjab and the hardships being faced by the general public.

The protest was planned on the sidelines of Mann’s visit to Dera Laal Badshah in Nakodar, where he was scheduled to pay obeisance.

The police administration deployed heavy force even before the protest began. As Bakshi set out from the mandal office with his associates, they were intercepted by the Lambra police and taken to Lambra police station. They were later shifted to the Mand police post at Maqsudan.

BJP leaders said that people across the state were distressed by the power crisis, but the government was attempting to suppress voices of dissent instead of addressing public grievances. They demanded that the government focus on resolving issues rather than detaining those raising their voices.

Bakshi said, “We had plans to gather for a peaceful protest against the CM at Nakodar. I, along with my associates gathered at Lambra where a heavy police force was present. We were detained by the police and prevented from heading to the protest site. People are sick of power cuts. Industrialists, traders and farmers are facing the brunt. But we haven’t been allowed to demonstrate our dissent. I’m currently at the Mand police station. I don’t know where my associates are.”