A shocking incident unfolded on Monday night as an Army Major and his team of 16 jawans faced a brutal attack allegedly by the owner and workers of a dhaba on the Manali-Ropar road in Punjab. The assault left the Major and several jawans severely injured, prompting the police to swiftly intervene, filing an FIR at the Kiratpur Sahib police station and apprehending two of the accused.

According to the FIR lodged in the early hours of Tuesday, the distressing event transpired when Major Sachin Singh Kuntal and his troops from Ladakh Scouts were returning from Palchan near Manali, Himachal Pradesh, following their victory in a snow marathon held in Lahaul the previous day.

As the soldiers, en route to Chandimandir, halted at the Alpine dhaba near Bharatgarh in Ropar district around 9:15 pm for dinner, tensions arose over the payment method for the bill. The dhaba owner’s refusal to accept payment via UPI and insistence on cash payment to evade taxation sparked an altercation with the soldiers, despite their online bill payment attempts, as outlined in the FIR.

The situation escalated when the owner, backed by a group of 30-35 individuals, attacked the Major and his jawans with lathis, sticks, and iron rods, even after the bill was settled digitally. The Major sustained injuries to his arms and head, rendering him unconscious, while the assailants fled the scene promptly. The injured Major was rushed to Civil Hospital Ropar by his comrades in a hired tempo traveller.

Ropar SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana confirmed that the police had registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including attempted murder, causing hurt, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation, rioting, and unlawful assembly.

The authorities identified two arrested individuals as Rajneesh alias Himanshu from Rajpura, Punjab, and Tanay from Uttar Pradesh. However, the dhaba owner and several others involved remain at large, with efforts underway to identify them through CCTV footage, as informed by the Kiratpur Sahib SHO.