Members of Hawara’s panel threaten protest

AMRITSAR:Five-member committee constituted to lead the ‘panthic’ struggle by Jagtar Singh Hawara, one of the convicts in former chief minister Beant Singh assassination case, on Wednesday warned of stir outside jails if the government does not meet demands raised during ‘Insaaf Morcha’, which lasted for around six months at village Bargari of Faridkot district from June 1 to December 9 last year. Hawara is presenly lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi.

Hawara, who was appointed as parallel jathedar of Akal Takht (highest temporal seat of Sikhs) at radicals’ Sarbat Khalsa (grand Sikh assembly) at village Chabba of Amritsar in 2015, constituted this committee couple of weeks ago.

He has cited that the community was disappointed over parallel acting jathedar of the Takht Dhian Singh Mand’s move of lifting the Bargari sit-in.

The demands include punishment to conspirators of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and guilty of Behbal Kalan killing and release of sikh prisoners. During the panthic gathering called by this committee at Chandigarh on January 27, the government was given an ultimatum till February 15 to meet these demands.

Disclosing next course of action, the panel said that they would stage a dharna outside Central Jail, Amritsar on February 20 . “Apart from pressing the government to release the Sikh prisoners, we also want to lift the spirit of these prisoners by gathering outside different jails,” said Narain Singh Chaura while briefing media .

Apart from Chaura, Principal (retd) Baljinder Singh, Master Santokh Singh Ludhiana, advocate Amar Singh Chahal and Jaspal Singh Heran are the members of the committee. However, only first three were present on the occasion.

They said after demonstrating outside Amritsar jail, they will hold similar protest outside other jails in Chandigarh, Nabha, Patiala and Delhi in next phase. Baljinder Singh said they have added two more demands— seeking justice for the families of four youths who were killed in police firing for protesting against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Nakodar and cancellation of punishment of three Sikh youths recently convicted by SBS Nagar court for waging war against the state.