Expressing grave concern over the latest incident of religious sacrilege in Punjab, State Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday asked the police to crack down heavily on anti-social elements while urging the people to maintain peace and harmony at all costs.
Referring to the reported defilement of the Sikh religious text in Amritsar, Capt Amarinder called upon the district police to ensure that the culprits are arrested and brought to book without delay in order to prevent aggravation of the tension sparked off by the incident.
“The growing incidence of desecration in the state is a cause of serious distress and a sign of increasing polarization on communal lines, which the Badal-led Akalis had tried to fan in the run-up to assembly polls in a desperate, though unsuccessful, bid to consolidate the electorate in their favour,” he said.
He reiterated his pre-poll promise to throw behind the bars every single person found involved in all such incidents, beginning with the Bargari sacrilege of 2015, which had led to two innocent people being killed in unprovoked police firing.
Capt Amarinder vowed that, once elected, he would ensure that not a single person found implicated in such cases is spared. He promised to take stringent action against anyone found guilty of involvement, including SAD supremo Parkash Singh Badal, who is known to have manipulated religious sentiment for political gains even on earlier occasions.
lashing out at the attempts of the Badal-led SAD and the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to create unrest in the state to promote their personal agendas, Capt Amarinder warned that anti-Punjab forces were trying to raise their head and exploit the state’s weakened administrative as well as law and order systems.
The state party chief also expressed concern over the continuously deteriorating law and order situation, as evidenced in brazen killings and shootouts being reported from various parts of the state almost every day.
He called upon the people of Punjab not to succumb to the fear psychosis being generated by hostile forces and to maintain their calm under all circumstances.