Navjot Sidhu joins protest by families of Behbal Kalan firing victims

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 20

With the Congress government under pressure over the recent alleged sacrilege attempts, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Navjot Singh Sidhu today visited Behbal Kalan village and joined a protest by the son of one of those killed in the 2015 police firing incident.

Also read: Navjot Sidhu’s Behbal Kalan visit reminder to CM Channi for prompt action in sacrilege cases

On December 16, Sukhraj Singh, son of Krishan Bhagwan Singh, had started an indefinite dharna over government’s failure to deliver justice, saying he would expose political parties in the state. For the past six years, parties had been using Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents and sacrilege cases as a political tool to exploit the religious sentiments of the people and grab power, he had alleged.

Sidhu has taken on his own government over the “delay in justice” to the families of those killed in police firing. By visiting the site, Sidhu reiterated his demand for early justice in the cases.

Speaking at the dharna site, the PCC president said lynching incidents, the one at Golden Temple in Amritsar and the second at Kapurthala gurdwara, were the outcome of people’s disenchantment with the justice system in the state as the culprits of the sacrilege and police firing incidents of 2015 had not been punished even after six years.

Speaking to a youth who had suffered bullet injuries in the October 2015 firing, Sidhu said while many victims of circumstances and atrocities were denied jobs on compassionate grounds despite the state government making claims about it, many powerful and influential people secured jobs without any solid reason to back their case. Krishna Bhagwan Singh and Gurjit Singh were killed after the police allegedly opened fire at a crowd protesting the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib near Behbal Kalan village on October 14, 2015.