Central Sikh Museum gets portrait of Rai Bular Bhatti

Amritsar, October 15

Advertisement

A day after the inconclusive meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar over the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal issue, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) unveiled a portrait of Bhai Balwinder Singh Jatana at the Central Sikh Museum here on today.

The SGPC also unveiled portraits of Nawab Rai Bular Ahmed Bhatti, a Muslim devotee of Guru Nanak Dev, Joginder Singh Panjarth, former member of the Shiromani committee, and Harinder Singh Raniya at the museum.

Jatana, and his accomplices had gunned down engineers, who were discussing the sharing of the SYL waters in the 90s.

Jatana, along with his accomplices, had stormed into a formal meeting being held to discuss the SYL Canal for sharing Punjab waters with Delhi and Haryana. Consequently, Avtar Aulakh and MS Sikri, the chief and superintending engineers of the SYL, respectively, were killed.

Recalling Bhai Jatana, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said Jattana, who was in his mid-twenties, had come as a saviour for the Punjab waters and fiercely opposed the SYL Canal without caring for his life.

Reprimanding successive governments on the matter of Punjab waters, Dhami said this was a sensitive issue for Punjabis and the governments should not interfere in it unnecessarily. He also recalled the efforts of Jatana’s one-time supporter Charanjit Singh.