Protesting the quashing of the Punjab Police report into the 2015 sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Kotkapura by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, activists of Dal Khalsa, United Akali Dal and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) marched to the High Court premises but were stopped yards away, detained and subsequently released. They were shouting slogans and displaying hand-held placards asking the Punjab CM to dismiss the inefficient Advocate General Atul Nanda of the state for his acute laxity and inefficiency in handling the sensitive case. WSN reports.

PANTHIC CIRCLES ARE HEARTBROKEN at the denial of justice by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which likely went overboard and quashed the entire report of the Special Investigation Team report into the incident painstakingly prepared by IG Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who has since retired. The report, submitted to the court, purportedly accused former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, his son and Akali Dal Badal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and others for the sacrilege.

There is deep resentment against the High Court order in Punjab and across the Diaspora in India and other countries.

The protest which was led by Dal Khalsa’s Kanwar Pal Singh, United Akali Dal’s Gurdeep Singh Bhatinda, Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar’s Jaskaran Singh and Sukhraj Singh -son of one of the martyrs of the Behbal Kalan firing protesting the sacrilege, while marching towards the court premises shouted slogans against the judiciary and the Punjab government calling them biased. One of the slogans, held by the Dal Khalsa leader read, Order! Order!! Order!!! -There is no justice for Sikhs in Hindustan.”

Panthic activists Narien Singh Chaura and Emaan Singh Mann also participated in the march towards the High Court.

Within minutes, when the Sikh youth in the protest attempted to break the police barricades, in their efforts to reach the High Court, around 50 of the protestors courted arrest and the Chandigarh Police and took them to Police Station Sarangpur, but were let off in the afternoon.

Sharply reacting to the detention of activists, including aggrieved family members, Sukhraj Singh called it ‘undemocratic.’

Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh while speaking to WSN said, “The High Court order reflects the utter failure of the Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government and the first step that the Punjab CM should take is to dismiss Advocate General Atul Nanda and the entire team that assisted him in the matter for performing such a shoddy job.”

“If the Chief Minister of Punjab fails to do so, then he should prepare to face public ire,” he added.

Gurdeep Singh of the United Akali Dal said, “The Chief Minister is only doing lip service and is simply not keen on delivering justice. From Barghari to Behbal Kalan, from Kotkapura to Maur, it is a story of the utter failure of the Punjab government to nail and punish culprits and guilty Punjab police top hierarchy and those actually directly involved in the crimes.”

Shiromani Akali Dal’s Jaskaran Singh, toeing his party line said that all such injustice is happening to us because Sikhs are treated as second-class citizens and are not free people.

Kanwarpal Singh pointed out that to date, the Punjab government has not dared to bring the infamous Sirsa cult head Gurmeet Ram Rahim on a warrant for interrogation in the Kotkapura sacrilege case.

All protestors were unanimous that we will not rest till justice is done.  “The quashing of the report by the courts is not the last word and we are determined to continue our struggle for justice in sacrilege cases, said Kanwar Pal Singh of the Dal Khalsa.