Sikh bodies take out protest march

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 14

The Satkar Committee today held an agitation against life imprisonment awarded by the Nawanshahr Sessions Court to three Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) activists “for mere possession of literature to incite the Khalistan movement” last week.

Members took out a protest march from Guru Nanak Mission Chowk to the DC office and gave a memorandum to the administration seeking intervention of the President into the matter.

Three Sikh youths, Arvinder Singh (29) of Nawanshahr, Surjit Singh (27) of Gurdaspur and Ranjit Singh (29) of Kaithal, have been awarded life sentence by the court of Additional Sessions Judge Randhir Verma.

Mere possession of posters and literature relating to the Sikh struggle was an annulment of the freedom of expression, said Satkar Committee leaders Sukhjit Singh Khosa and Balbir Singh.

Regarding registration of another case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against Arvinder Singh on February 7, the protesters alleged that the police under instructions of the Punjab Government were acting post facto to foist another case to strengthen their first one.

Balachaur DSP Rajpal Singh said Arvinder was operating from jail and the incident dated back to six months. “It is now that we got a clue to it from Gurdeep’s confession,” he said, adding that lookout notices had been issued against two more accused in the case.