Congress non-serious on sacrilege issue: Phoolka

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 13

Replying to the Governor’s address Dakha legislator HS Phoolka today said when the state government has failed to table the action taken report (ATR) on judicial inquiry into the killing of four persons in Nakodar in 1986 till date, “what can we expect about its seriousness into finding the truth behind the Bargari police firing incident of 2015”.

Phoolka was referring to a letter by AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu to the CMin October 2018, saying he had published a report in The Tribune on March 24, 1987, about the judicial inquiry into police firing on people protesting against the burning of “birs” in a Nakodar gurudwara on October 31, 1986. As many as four persons had died and eight injured. An inquiry was conducted by Justice Gurnam Singh and the report submitted on October 31, 1986. Speaker Rana KP Singh said the report was tabled in the House in 2001. He, however, did not confirm any ATR on the issue.

Phoolka said: “It is more than six months now when the House had decided that a case needs to be made against the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and former CM Parkash Singh Badal. The government has not given any statement on the matter.” He said the PM, in a reply to his letter, had written that the SGPC had completed its tenure in December 2016.

Congress MLA Harminder Gill said the police had arrested 24 people involved in different incidents of sacrilege.