Bhagwant Mann: Won't let Punjab become Afghanistan

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, March 24

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today said his government was committed to preserving the state’s hard-earned peace and won’t let Punjab become another Afghanistan.

Hate factories shut

Punjab’s youth will not be allowed to become raw material for hate factories being run in the name of religion. Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Chief Minister

In a video message to the people of the state, he said, “Those who have opened shops in the name of religion and are provoking our youth so as to vitiate the communal harmony are under the illusion they will succeed.” He said the state’s youth would not be allowed to become “raw material for hate factories being run in the name of religion”. Mann’s statement comes days after the Punjab Police launched a crackdown on the pro-Khalistan group led by ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief Amritpal Singh, a fugitive against whom the stringent National Security Act has been invoked. “Our government is duty-bound to make Punjab prosperous by foiling the designs of anti-Punjab forces,” he said.

Without naming Amritpal, he said attempts to divide the people in the name of religion had been foiled.