Anti-sacrilege law to be tabled in Punjab Assembly next week

The Punjab Government will introduce a legislation to ensure strict punishment for acts of sacrilege in the special Assembly session scheduled for July 10 and 11.

“Those who commit sacrilege will no longer escape, a new era of justice is about to begin,” Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Neel Garg said in a post on X on Saturday.

The decision came days after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann made an announcement in this regard.

The CM had stated this after holding a meeting with representatives of the “Sarb Dharam Beadbi Rokko Kanoon Morcha”.

AAP leader Baltej Pannu said the state government was bringing the bill to completely prevent sacrilege incidents so that in the future, no one “dared to insult” scriptures of any religion and the religious sentiments of people.

The desecration of religious texts had become a major issue in the 2017 Assembly elections.

The later part of the SAD regime, which ruled in alliance with the BJP in the state, was marked by several sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing on protesters that had resulted in the death of two persons in 2015. (With PTI inputs)