Shift Hawara to state: Sikh leaders

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24

Panthic organisations are trying to get Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was appointed as Akal Takht “Jathedar” by the Sarbat Khalsa last year, transferred to a jail in Punjab from Delhi.

Representatives of Panthic organisations – the United Akali Dal, Akali Dal (Mann), Akali Dal 1920, Swatantar Akali Dal and the Panthic Sewa Lehar — have demanded that Hawara be transferred to a jail in Punjab as no case was pending against him in Delhi.

Sikh leaders Bhai Mohkam Singh, Gurdeep Singh Bathinda and Jaskaran Singh Kahansinghwala today met DGP Suresh Arora in this regard.

They said they were planning to organise another Sarbat Khalsa on November 10 at Talwandi Sabo, and assured the DGP that the congregation would be peaceful. They said Hawara would bring all Panthic factions together and drive them into a political force.

The leaders alleged that three persons — Chamkaur Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Gurmukh Singh — were tortured by the Faridkot police on September 13 in a case of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. They alleged that the victims were pressured to give a false witness in the case. They said if the guilty officers, DSP Sulakkhan Singh, CIA inspector Shinder Singh and inspectors Jagdish Kumar and Dalbir Singh, were not punished, they would submit a memorandum to the Punjab Governor on September 26 and stage a dharna outside the CM residence. The DGP has asked the DIG Bathinda Range to inquire into the incident.