State cracks down on hardliners

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, November 12

The district police today arrested Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, former chief of dreaded Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), and member of now defunct Panthic Committee, formed in 1986.

He is general secretary of the United Akali Dal (UAD), a Sikh radical organisation.

Zaffarwal lashed out at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal saying that he was responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

“Both Chief Minister and his deputy Sukhbir Badal should resign as they are instigating violence in the state. Punjab has already gone through a period of turmoil and now the hard-earned peace was put at stake by some politicians. These people are playing with fire by misusing religion to achieve their own political ends,” he alleged.

He was initially taken to an undisclosed location, but fearing backlash the police brought him to the Dhariwal police station. He was then produced before the Gurdaspur SDM who sent him to judicial custody till November 23.

A case under Sections 107/151 CrPC was registered against him at the Dhariwal police station.

“A person is booked under this Act when an Executive Magistrate, in this case the SDM, receives information that any person is likely to disturb peace. We had information that Zaffarwal planned to disturb peace in the area,” said an officer who was part of the team that arrested the accused. “It is a preventive action. Anyone booked under this act is required to maintain good behaviour for at least six months,” said SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor. Zaffarwal was shifted to the Gurdaspur Central Jail amid tight security.

The former militant has been running a homoeopathic clinic at his native Zaffarwal village for the last several years ever since he became a “reformed man”.

He was nabbed around 8 am from his residence although senior officers claimed that he was “picked from the outskirts of Dhariwal township.”

Sources reveal that his arrest was on the cards ever since the police decided to crack down on hardliners after Sarbat Khalsa. A top officer maintained that the Gurdaspur police was keeping tabs on the movement of all former militants. “We cannot rule out more arrests,” said an officer.

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