Radical leaders held over posters against jathedars

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 9

The police have arrested four leaders of Sikh radical organisations for putting up posters asking people to boycott five Sikh priests (jathedars) for their controversial decision to pardon Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh.

The police have arrested Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh Bittu (L) and Panch Pardhani leader Harpal Singh Cheema. The two were arrested after they held a press conference to flay the arrest of two youth wing leaders of the party—state unit president Paramjit Singh Tanda and district president Gagandeep Singh.

During the press conference, Bittu said, “The police have been terrorising our activists for the past three days at the behest of the ruling party. Our two leaders have been arrested and they have not been produced in any court so far.”

Bittu and Cheema said there was nothing wrong in getting the said posters published. “We have shown our dissidence against the decision of jathedars through these posters. None of the jathedars has filed a complaint against it. However, it surely has pained a few others,” said Cheema. The state government was misusing the police to harass their members, he alleged.

Instead of harassing their party members, the police should arrest them if they had violated any law. “There is nothing illegal in the text of these posters. The government is unnecessarily involving itself in religious matters. First it exerted pressure on jathedars to get the dera chief pardoned and now it is suppressing people’s right to express their views,” Cheema said.

An hour after the press conference, both leaders were arrested from the Dal Khalsa’s office on the GT road here.