On Saturday 27th August 2022, a day before Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s visit to Jalandhar, pro-Khalistan slogans were raised in the city. These slogans were written on the posters of CM Mann and former CM Beant Singh. The posters and banners welcoming the CM were vandalised by miscreants with Khalistani slogans written in black ink.
CM Mann is to visit Jalandhar for the inauguration of ‘Khedan Vatan Punjab Diyan’ on Monday. The Punjab police are investigating in connection with the slogans raised ahead of CM Bhagwant Mann’s visit. It is notable that the former CM Beant Singh died in a bomb explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, in an attack by Khalistani terrorists.
Apart from the vandalisation of the posters, a statue of Bent Singh was also vandalised by smearing black ink. Reportedly the slogans were written on the posters on Saturday night. On receiving information about the same, police removed the slogans. The police are checking CCTV footage of nearby locations to identify the pro-Khalistani culprits.
This is not the first incident that pro-Khalistan slogans are raised in public places in Punjab after Aam Aadmi Party formed a government in Punjab in March 2022. Earlier on 20th June 2022, a man wrote pro-Khalistan slogans on the walls of two educational institutions. The culprit was nabbed on July 6. The police identified him as Manjeet who is a resident of Patiala.
In the investigations, Manjeet said that he was promised to pay USD 1,000 by a US-based person for writing these slogans. Manjeet was brought before the court, which remanded him to 5-day police custody pending further investigation.
Aam Aadmi Party is also preparing for the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. Incidentally, pro-Khalistani slogans were also reported from the state in May 2022. A Punjabi person was arrested for purportedly putting Khalistan flags and writing pro-Khalistan slogans on the walls in Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh. The culprit in this case belonged to Morinda in Punjab. He allegedly put up pro-Khalistan flags and wrote slogans on the wall of Himachal Assembly in Dharamsala.
In the investigations, this culprit confessed that he was also involved in putting up Khalistan banners outside the mini-secretariat complex in Punjab`s Ropar on April 13. On May 8, ‘Khalistan’ flags were discovered tied to the Assembly’s main gate and walls. Moreover, ‘Khalistan’ was inscribed in green on the outermost wall of the Assembly.
Following the incident, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur asked the state police to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the provocative incident. The SIT, in turn, filed a first information report (FIR) against Gurpatwant Singh Pannu of the banned Khalistani terror outfit Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for inciting or abetting terror acts and Indian Penal Code Sections 153A and 153B for promoting disharmony or enmity between different groups on the basis of religion.
