Former KCF chief Zaffarwal evades police; SAD (A) leader held

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, December 7

Former Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal has reportedly gone into hiding even as Gurdaspur police is conducting search operations in his home district of Gurdaspur and at various other places across Punjab.

The police have launched a crackdown on Sikh radicals ahead of the controversial Sarbat Khalsa slated to be held in Moga on Thursday.

His native village of Zaffarwal falls under the Dhariwal police station. On November 8, a police party led by DSP (Dhariwal) AD Singh followed Zaffarwal till Moga before losing track of him.

Sources say the police tried to establish his whereabouts from his mobile phone but later he switched it off.

The police party raided a few deras around Moga before returning to Gurdaspur.

SSP Jasdeep Singh confirmed that the former terrorist had managed to give the police a slip in Moga.

“We are trying to ascertain his position. Once we do that it will be a matter of time before we take him into preventive custody. Chances of him surfacing at the Sarbat Khalsa tomorrow are also not being ruled out. We are taking all types of precautions to ensure he does not take part in tomorrow’s event,” the SSP said.

The SSP added that the Pathankot district SAD (Amritsar) unit president Gurmeet Singh Maan was taken into preventive custody from his residence in Gurdaspur today morning.

Sources claim that like Zaffarwal, Maan too had fled and he returned after the police allegedly intimidated his son. “His son is a government employee and as he was leaving for work in the morning when the police reached his home and told him to accompany them. He then rang up his father who returned to his house after an hour,” an officer, on the condition of anonymity, said.

In Pathankot district, SSP Rakesh Kaushal said that police had identified just two Sikh hardliners.

“Both of them are elderly people and have given to me in writing that they will not take part in tomorrow’s programme,” he said.

Meanwhile, radical Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa has said that it will hold a rally for victims of police firing and forced disappearances on December 9 at Batala on the occasion of the 68th International Human Rights Day.

Spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh added that his organisation condemned the police crackdown on Sikh activists ahead of the Moga event.