In a bizarre protest that left residents amused, a man dressed like a dacoit and roamed around Bathinda on a horse on Saturday, searching for an LPG cylinder to steal.The man was identified as Vijay Kumar, a former municipal councillor associated with the Shiromani Akali Dal, who claimed his act was a symbolic protest against the shortage and alleged black marketing of domestic gas cylinders.Vijay, clad in a traditional black dacoit outfit, stopped a man carrying a gas cylinder on his bicycle and “looted” it in full public view. The unusual spectacle drew a crowd.Clarifying that the act was staged as part of his protest, Vijay said he had been unable to secure an LPG cylinder despite repeated attempts. “My wife has been forced to cook ‘chapattis’ on a ‘chulha’ (earthen stove). My turn for a cylinder had not come yet at the gas agency. So today, I looted it,” he said.He said tensions abroad were impacting common people in India and that citizens needed to remain alert.Vijay is no stranger to such protests. Recently, he dressed as a groom and arrived at the Canal Colony police station in Bathinda in a chariot, accompanied by a band, to lodge a complaint against the state government. He had then claimed that the state government’s long-pending promise of giving Rs 1,000 per month to women had derailed his marriage proposal.