Amritpal supporters plan Maghi Mela event to form panel for party launch
Supporters of Khalistan sympathiser and Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh — who is currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail — will be holding a Maghi Mela conference here on January 14 to constitute a panel that will seek suggestions from people to form a political outfit.
“We are holding a Panthic gathering during Maghi Mela in Muktsar on January 14. Faridkot Lok Sabha MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa will also be attending it. We will announce a five or seven-member committee to form a regional political outfit that day,” said his father Tarsem Singh.
“This committee will seek suggestions from the public, chalk out a strategy and decide on constitution of our party,” he added.
Amritpal Singh was arrested under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) in April 2023 after a manhunt by the Punjab Police that lasted for over a month. Under the Act, a person, deemed to be a threat to the country, can be detained up to a year without trial. He got into limelight again when he won the Lok Sabha poll last year from the Khadoor Sahib constituency while still in jail.
Sukhbir to attend SAD conference: Cheema
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said they will be holding a rally in Muktsar on Maghi day. SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said that all senior leaders, including Sukhbir Singh Badal, will attend this event.
This will be the first such public appearance of Badal after he was awarded a religious punishment by the Akal Takht — the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs — for religious misconducted during his party’s 10-year-rule in Punjab from 2007-17.
The Congress has decided to stay away from holding a political event on the day, with its state chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring saying the decision is in line with the previous directions of the Akal Takht, which had in 2017 asked political parties to abstain from holding rallies on martyrdom days.
“However, we will pay obeisance at the historic gurdwaras and pay tributes to 40 Muktas,” he said speaking over the phone.
Will pay obeisance at gurdwaras: AAP leader
A leader of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party said his party will also not be holding a political conference but its senior leaders will be paying obeisance at Muktsar’s Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.
A BJP leader said they too have not held discussions over it. “Last year, the local leadership had paid obeisance at several gurdwaras on the day,” said BJP leader Rajesh Pathela Gora, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Assembly poll.
Maghi Mela is observed every year to commemorate the 40 Muktas (Sikh soldiers) who had died fighting against the Mughals in 1705 here.
