SAS NAGAR, Punjab—Mr. Shashi Kant, former DGP, went to Gurdwara Amb Sahib yesterday to extend humanitarian support and demand the release of Sikhs who are still suffering in jails despite completing their sentences. As expected, Mr. Shashi Kant’s visit was ignored by Indian and Punjabi media. As per his own statement on Facebook, a few Punjabi media agencies have covered the hunger strike of Bhai Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa.
The former Haryana DGP has alleged that others have started to term him a terrorist. To clear his stance, ex-DGP Shashi Kant made the following points at Gurdwara Amb Sahib during his visit:
1) I supported the demand for the release of the Sikh youth in question.
2) I told the gathering that perhaps the ruling Akali party does not want to strain its ties with the BJP by seeking the release of these youth. Parliamentary elections are around the corner and the Akali party is just angling for ministerial berth in the Centre for Bibi Harsimrat or to get some ‘unwanted’ Akali leader like Dhindsa ‘adjusted’ so that he remains out of the scene.
Mr. Shashi Kant alleged that he further revealed to S. Simran jit Singh Mann, Harpal Singh Cheema, and other leaders that the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Badal is as much responsible for the unfortunate happenings in 1984, as is Indira Gandhi. He alleged that “at that point of time I was a junior officer in the intelligence bureau and this fact is to my personal knowledge. Late S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra had also told me this thing when I had gone visiting him in Raipur jail.”
He further alleged that “the Badals, who are trying to accentuate their dynastic rule in Punjab, looting and exploiting this sacred land of Gurus, need to be thrown out of power and tried by a Peoples’ court on the pattern of the ‘Nuremberg Trial’.”
