BAGHAPURANA—Over 200 Sikh activists were detained by the Punjab police prior to July 17 to bar them from taking part in culmination of an Akhand Path Sahib at village Bhagta Bhai Ka. The Akhand Path was being organized to kick off a campaign to seek beadbi culprits arrested. Over a dozen beadbi cases came to the fore this past year putting the entire state of Punjab in a very tense situation.
Sikh24 has confirmed that Jathedar Baljit Singh Daduwal, Baba Pardeep Singh Chandpura, Baba Jaswinder Singh Daduwal, Bhai Jasveer Singh Bhatti (HSGMC), Bhai Jeet Singh Khalsa (HSGMC) and a Punj Pyare Jatha of Singhs leading a protest march initiated from Daduwal were taken into custody. Chief Organizing Secretary of Youth Akali Dal Amritsar Bhai Papalpreet Singh was reportedly arrested in the afternoon of July 17. He was taken into custody by a troop of Punjab police from the bus stand of Baghapurana.
Similarly, Senior leader of United Akali Dal Bhai Satnam Singh Manawa, Bhai Ranjit Singh Sanghera (President of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar from Barnala) and a Jatha of Damdami Taksal (Ajnala) was also arrested by the Punjab police on July 17.
The Punjab police had earlier arrested several prominent Sikh personalities like Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala, Bhai Gurdeep Singh Bathinda, Jathedar Bhai Baljit Singh Daduwal and others in a massive crackdown on July 15 to prevent them from taking part in July 17 smagam at Bhagta Bhai Ka. President of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) S. Simranjeet Singh Mann was also put under house arrest. The police also raided on the houses of almost all active Sikh activists while some of them escaped the raids.
Peaceful protests don’t do peace for anyone in Punjab.
Elections are rigged.
No taxes for government no rule for government.
Rule in arms. Rule in public opinion. Two things the Panth can adapt with only little effort.
Then maybe we can send our own to help in Turkey and Middle East.
Learn to live in harmony all of you .
If any one wants to rule Punjab then he must use elections as a mean to it and not by agitation , anarchy or chaos
‘Learn to live in harmony all of ‘you’’ – how patronising and condescending of you RSS Harinder considering the Sikh is happy to sit and eat with the Dalit whilst you ideologically are so intolerant of others you can never bring yourself to do the same. Elections are not meant to be an inconvenient rubber stamping exercise you do every few years. You need open debate where opposing points of view can be raised and challenged so that the electorate know who and what they are actually voting for. This means allowing free association and free speech so that hustings can be made around the Punjab so that those seeking public office can present their cases to the masses. Public rallies, protest marches and hartals (or their equivalents such as lowering of flags at half mast, wearing black armbands, public observances of minutes of silence and days of mourning) are all part of the democratic process and happen in every civilised democratic nation of the world. How can you have elections when those who seek to raise an issue of concern or present a manifesto are harassed and arrested on spurious charges, released and rearrested on more spurious charges? You make a mockery of elections by this notion that the incumbent office holder has an unspoken ‘right’ to impair the democratic right of his opponents, even going so far as to stone their cars or even shoot them dead in the street. Why are you so afraid of the electorate that you wish to stop them from peacefully expressing their grievances? Because at heart you are not a democrat but just want to cynically use the legitimacy of elections to mask your autocrat face. As for agitation , anarchy or chaos – the Punjab is in the grip of ethnic cleansing proportioned drug peddling to Sikh jawans, there is repeated beadbi of our Guru and Sikhs who protest that are shot dead by police who are not even suspended from duty let alone arraigned for their crime. We need not your hypocritical admonitions on living in harmony or democracy then although I will defend your right to publish your hate speech on this Sikh website as your words undermine and deconstruct your position more eloquently than I can.
‘Learn to live in harmony all of ‘you’’ – how patronising and condescending of you RSS Harinder considering the Sikh is happy to sit and eat with the Dalit whilst you ideologically are so intolerant of others you can never bring yourself to do the same. Elections are not meant to be an inconvenient rubber stamping exercise you do every few years. You need open debate where opposing points of view can be raised and challenged so that the electorate know who and what they are actually voting for. This means allowing free association and free speech so that hustings can be made around the Punjab so that those seeking public office can present their cases to the masses. Public rallies, protest marches and hartals (or their equivalents such as lowering of flags at half mast, wearing black armbands, public observances of minutes of silence and days of mourning) are all part of the democratic process and happen in every civilised democratic nation of the world. How can you have elections when those who seek to raise an issue of concern or present a manifesto are harassed and arrested on spurious charges, released and rearrested on more spurious charges? You make a mockery of elections by this notion that the incumbent office holder has an unspoken ‘right’ to impair the democratic right of his opponents, even going so far as to stone their cars or even shoot them dead in the street. Why are you so afraid of the electorate that you wish to stop them from peacefully expressing their grievances? Because at heart you are not a democrat but just want to cynically use the legitimacy of elections to mask your autocrat face. As for agitation , anarchy or chaos – the Punjab is in the grip of ethnic cleansing proportioned drug peddling to Sikh jawans, there is repeated beadbi of our Guru and Sikhs who protest that are shot dead by police who are not even suspended from duty let alone arraigned for their crime. We need not your hypocritical admonitions on living in harmony or democracy then although I will defend your right to publish your hate speech on this Sikh website as your words undermine and deconstruct your position more eloquently than I can