Sikh activists detained in Amritsar post attack

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 20

With the preliminary investigation pointing to the possible role of local youths in Sunday’s Nirankari Bhavan grenade attack, the police raided the houses of Sikh activists in the wee hours of Tuesday. Hardliners alleged several youths were detained without any concrete proof.

Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh Bittu, while expressing grief over the deaths in the attack, accused the police of a witch-hunt. “The police should conduct a probe without any bias and must not perceive it from the prism of the Sikh-Nirankari clash of 1978,” he said.

SPS Parmar, IGP, Border Range, said, “We are in the process of questioning all those detained.” 

Sources said Gurjant Singh of Dal Khalsa and Ranjit Singh Damdami, senior vice-president of Sikh Youth Federation (Bhindranwale), were released in the evening. So was the chief  of Sikh Youth of Punjab, Paramjit Singh Mand, questioned by the Batala cops for seven hours.

Mand is a lecturer in a Sathiala college. A colleague said Mand was asked about those on his Facebook list. 

Gurjant Singh was questioned about his whereabouts on Sunday: “The SHO took my phone. They checked the call records,” he said.

Meanwhile, informed that the attackers were riding a black Pulsar, the  police have impounded 35 such bikes.