New Delhi, March 8
The government has credible information of efforts to revive militancy in Punjab and cannot do away with the list containing names of Sikh youths with alleged militant links, though it undertook periodic reviews, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said in a letter to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC).
The Prime Minister was replying to SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar’s letter on December 25, 2007, seeking a review of the so-called “black list” containing such names.
The lists could not be done away with as “the government and our agencies have credible information of efforts being made by extremist groups to revive militancy in Punjab,” he said.
“Much of this is concentrated in countries abroad like the UK, Germany, Canada and especially Pakistan, where such groups receive a great deal of encouragement from remnants of extremist groups as well as support from other hostile forces,” Manmohan Singh’s letter said. “I would like to assure you that our government has and is adopting a very enlightened policy in this regard. It would not be correct to assume, as you have said, that no review has ever been conducted of the so-called ‘black list’.”
— PTI
