Amidst the concerns raised by the Congress party regarding security of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab, the state police chief Gaurav Yadav on Friday assured “foolproof security”.
“We are making a comprehensive security arrangement so that the yatra passes off peacefully. We are making appropriate arrangements. Punjab Police is a highly professional police force,” said the state Director General of Police (DGP).
Yadav said that already, an “advance contingent” has been sent to Rajasthan, “and then we will send one team to Haryana to see how security arrangements have been done for the Bharat Jodo Yatra”.
Notably, Congress’s national general secretary KC Venugopal had written to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah a few days earlier raising security concerns regarding the Bharat Jodo Yatra as it would travel through the border states of Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in January, while describing the two as “sensitive”.
The banned pro-Khalistan terror group Sikh for Justice had recently threatened to stop Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. SFJ’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannu released a video calling upon the Sikhs of Punjab to stop Rahul Gandhi's visit.
Ahead of yatra’s arrival in Punjab, the state Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday addressed the party leaders and activists in Patiala. Warring said that Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra will enter Punjab tentatively on the evening of January 11. “The party leadership is discussing other modules of the yatra. The route will cover Shambhu till Jalandhar, Adampur, Mukerian, Pathankot, and Madhopur. Then it will move on to Kashmir,” he said.
The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, has traversed nine states so far and is set to culminate in Jammu and Kashmir by the end of January. The yatra is on its 108th day and has covered around 3,000 kms in 46 districts across nine states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telengana, Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
