Bhagwant Mann hit out at Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh for “provoking” individuals

Chandigarh:

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Tuesday hit out at Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh for “provoking” individuals by an ultimatum to the AAP authorities to launch all Sikh youths who have been held in the course of the police crackdown in opposition to radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.

Hitting again, the Jathedar mentioned he has the correct and obligation to talk about “innocent” Sikh youths.

Following a police crackdown in opposition to Amritpal and his associates, the Punjab Police Sunday mentioned it has launched 197 individuals out of whole 353 taken into preventive custody on apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of regulation and order.

Mann accused the Jathedar of “favouring” the Badals and in addition advised him that the Badals had “used” a number of Jathedars for his or her “vested interests”.

The CM additional advised the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the best temporal seat of Sikhs, that it might have been higher had he issued the ultimatum within the sacrilege and lacking ‘saroops’ of Guru Granth Sahib.

Mann’s response got here a day after the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpeet Singh had given a 24-hour ultimatum to the AAP authorities to launch all Sikh youths who have been held in the course of the police crackdown in opposition to radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.

The Jathedar had additionally condemned the state authorities for invoking the National Security Act in opposition to a couple of individuals in the course of the police crackdown.

The Jathedar of Akal Takht in Amritsar had convened a particular gathering of Sikh organizations, together with intellectuals, Sikh attorneys, journalists, spiritual and social leaders to debate the present scenario in Punjab following the March 18 motion in opposition to parts of ‘Waris Punjab De’ headed by Amritpal Singh.

Lambasting the Jathedar over his ultimatum, Mann in a tweet in Punjabi mentioned, “Jathedar Sri Akal Takht Sahib ji. Everyone knows you and SGPC have been favoring the Badals. Look at the history, many Jathedars were used by the Badals for their own interests. It would have been better had you given the ultimatum for the sacrilege and missing ‘saroops’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji instead of provoking happily living people.” The incidents associated to the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, placing up handwritten sacrilegious posters, and torn pages of the holy e-book being discovered scattered at Bargari had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.

In a separate incident, 328 ‘saroops’ (copies) of Guru Granth Sahib had gone lacking from the information of the publication home of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

Later, the Jathedar in his Facebook submit on Tuesday mentioned, “Bhagwant Mann ji as you represent Punjab, I am also a humble representative of my ‘qaum’ (community).” “I also have the right and my duty to speak about the rights of the innocent youth of my ‘qaum’,” mentioned the Jathedar.

He advised the CM that he was proper that usually “innocent” spiritual persons are utilized by political individuals.

“But I am fully aware of this,” mentioned Singh.

At the identical time, he requested Mann to watch out that political individuals like him might not be utilized by politicians for grinding their axe.

Singh advised the CM, “First, let’s save Punjab together and unite the mothers waiting for their innocent sons who have been put in jail and get their blessings”, as he was referring to the ultimatum given to the state authorities for launch of the Sikh youths.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)