JALANDHAR: Despite tight security arrangements and the “attempts by the police to foil the state level demonstration, the All India Sikh Students federation (Badal) and the Khalra Action Committee, recently, successfully organized a protest march and staged a dharna outside the deputy commissioner’s office. They were protesting against the in action of the government in “speaking the police officers responsible for the mass cremation of 984 bodies and the illegal detention of human rights activist, Jaswant Singh Khalra. About 100 federation members were detained for violating the prohibitory orders in force in the district.
The police had laid siege around the Central Town Gurdwara here early that morning and did not even allow devotees to cross the barricades and nakas laid at all the approach Toads. But the federation work converged at the Nehru ‘Garden Park, from where they started their protest march. Veteran Akali leader Surjit Singh Minhas and Surinder Singh Ghariala, chairman, Khalra Action Committee, along with others were bundled into police trucks, several, federation leaders were picked up from their residences early in the morning, while many others from different districts were detained at various places.
Harshankar Singh Rana, senior vice-president, while condemning the police action said that the police had detained federation president, Avtar Singh Boparai at Beas, while he was on his way to Jalandhar. Vice-president, Joginder Singh Jogi, Baljit Singh Neela Mahl and Several other members from Amritsar, Ludhiana and Gurdaspur districts were stopped by the police at various points in a bid to foil the march. The federation leader demanded that the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and other Sikh detainees lodged in various jails be released immediately.
Meanwhile, the fissures in the federation came to the fore with a faction headed by Karnail Singh Daula Nangal alleging that the Boparai group had not consulted them on the protest march. Chet Singh Daula Nangal, vice-president, while talking to the media persons termed the march as a failure.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 6, 1996
