Behbal Kalan protest: After CM Manns appeal, protesters open one side of highway
After Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday made an appeal for lifting the blockade on the Bathinda-Amritsar national highway in Faridkot, protesters opened one side of the road in the evening.
Mann later thanked the protesters, comprising Sikh organisations and members of families of those killed in the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing, and asserted that his government is committed to ensuring justice.
Punjab minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal also met the protesters at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot and assured them that justice would be done.
The protesters had blocked the national highway on February 5.
Incidents of theft of the bir of the Guru Granth Sahib, putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book being found in Bargari had triggered protests in Faridkot in 2015.
Two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot after police fired at protesters in October 2015. Appealing to the protesters to lift the blockade to prevent inconvenience to commuters, Mann said the police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura along with sacrilege incidents had bruised the psyche of every human being, especially the Sikh Sangat.
He said justice will be done in both these incidents and the perpetrators of these heinous crimes will not be spared at any cost.
In a statement, Mann also lashed out at the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress, saying the two parties have connived with each other to protect the guilty.
While the unfortunate incidents of desecration and firing on innocent people took place during the Akali regime, the Congress “actively shielded” the perpetrators of these crimes during its tenure, he said.
He said the “Akali-Congress nexus that was shielding the accused” was broken after the AAP came to power He said his government is firmly committed to ensuring justice in both cases.
After meeting the protesters at Behbal Kalan, minister Dhaliwal said he requested them to lift the blockade as people were facing inconvenience.
“They acceded to our request and decided that they will open one side of the highway,” Dhaliwal told reporters in Faridkot.
Led by Krishan Bhagwans son Sukhraj Singh, the protesters have come together under the banner of Beadbi Insaaf Morcha. They have accused the AAP government of not doing justice in the matter.
Singh has been protesting in Behbal Kalan since December 16, 2021.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)