The mob also damaged mirrors of an official vehicle of fire brigade team, damaged cars, attacked a transporter’s office and tried to block traffic on the main road.

The team of police officers, which reached the spot only after much damage had been done, had to use force to stop the hundred-strong mob. Later, an FIR was registered and five slum dwellers — Shakeel, Naresh Singh, Vinod, Arjun and Manju — were arrested. “The rest are being identified,” DSP Harmohan Singh said.

The incident occurred when the tehbazari team, under the supervision of Superintendent Omparkash Bhardwaj, visited the spot for the third time to clear it of encroachments.

The team had already razed over 10 slums out of the nearly 100 on the area meant for parking trucks, when a group suddenly turned violent and attacked them.

“These dwellers have encroached on the area meant to park trucks, have taken kundi connections and are also involved in criminal activities. And today they created a ruckus and caused tension in our area. They should be moved from here at the earliest,” said Charan Singh Lohara, president of Ludhiana Transporters Association.

He added, “Had our transporters not reached on time, the mob could have even damaged a bus of Ryan International School and set afire an oil tanker.”

Talking to Newsline, Assistant Commissioner Amarjit Singh Sekhon said: “Our team preferred to come back today because of the tension. We plan to cordon off the area next time and plan the drive in a way so that no untoward incident happens. We are also thinking of persuading the dwellers to vacate the place on their own.”

On Tuesday, a tehbazari team had razed several slums and illegal structures from various parts of the city as part of their clearance drive but failed to initiate any action in Transport Nagar. Later, after the police controlled the mob, the MC team left the spot without demolishing any encroachment.