Gurdaspur, Punjab (June 21, 2012): A protest rally held by various Sikh organisations in Gurdaspur to demand the arrest of the killers of Bhai Jaspal Singh (18) of nearby Chorh Sidhwan village, who was killed in police firing during a bandh on March 29, passed off peacefully on Wednesday, (June 20, 2012).
As per news reports the district administration had made tight security arrangements to check any untoward incident during the protest rally. Though Section 144 of CrPC was announced in Gurdaspur, authorities allowed the agitators to hold the protest at the deputy commissioner office on the assurance that the protesters would maintain peace.
“Some youths did shout provocative slogans during the march towards the DC office. However, rally organisers asked the youths not to shout objectionable slogans since it would not help secure punishment for those who shot dead Jaspal (18), a first semester student at the local Beant College of Engineering and Technology” a Hindustan Times (HT) report added.
Those who led the protest rally included SAD (Panch Pardhani) chairman Daljit Singh Bittu, ex-IAS officer Gurtej Singh, SAD (Amritsar) general secretary Prof Mohinder Pal Singh & former MP Dhian Singh Mand, Dal Khalsa chief Harcharanjit Singh Dhami, Simranjit Singh, SAD leaders Satnam Singh and Kartar Singh Khakh, Damdami Taksal representative Lakhwinder Singh and parents and relatives of the deceased.
The speakers told the gathering that a Sikh preacher and leader of Panthic Sewa Lehar Baba Baljit Singh Daduwal was taken into police custody in Bathinda to prevent him from taking part in the protest rally in Gurdaspur.
Handing over a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha, the protest leaders have asked the state government to arrest Hindu extreemists & Shiv Sena activists who had attacked four Sikh youths, removed & burnt their turban during the bandh observed by Sikh organisations in Gurdaspur on March 28 to protest against hanging of Sikh political prisioner Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana.
The DC Sikh leaders and protesters that the accused had been granted bail by a local court till July 6, 2012. The protest leaders demanded the arrest and suspension of police officers responsible for killing Bhai Jaspal Singh.
They asserted that they did not have faith in the Special Investigation Team of the police and demanded a CBI probe into the unprovoked firing by police that killed Jaspal Singh and injured another youth Ranjit Singh (18) of Pandher village.
Meanwhile, the DC asked them to join the ongoing probe into the incident by Jalandhar division commissioner Anurag Verma who would rejoin duty on June 22.