Following the Punjab police’s claims that incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab have its roots in Australia and Dubai, the Centre on Thursday sought a report on the same.
The Central Government has sought a report from the Punjab Government on information about the alleged “foreign hand” in the recent incidents of sacrilege that has sparked protests in the State.
A senior Union Home Ministry official said that all necessary action will be taken against criminal elements, be it within the country or outside, for creating disturbance.
The development assumes significance as Akali MP from Bathinda and the Union Minister Harsimrat Badal, a day a before, blamed a “foreign hand” behind the turmoil in Punjab over the recent incidents of desecration of a Sikh holy book.
She minced no words to say that a “clear foreign hand” has been indicated and the government would expose those foreign hands which have been working to do this. “They are going to be brought in front of the country,” she added.
Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal had, last week, indicated at the “outside agencies” for orchestrating the incidents of sacrilege to foment trouble in the State.
The Punjab Police, on Tuesday, claimed that it has “clear and concrete evidence” of foreign funding in the cases of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in recent days with Dubai and Australia being “major landmarks” in funding trail.
The assertion followed the sustained interrogation of the two accused, arrested by the police in the matter. The police has arrested two brothers Jaswinder Singh and Rupinder Singh for the main case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib bir (copy) at Bargari village in Faridkot district.
Their arrests were made after the police intercepted their phone calls with each other and also to Australia and Dubai. Punjab is on boil since October 12 when the first incident of desecration was reported from Bargari village in Faridkot district, sharing its border with Pakistan.
As many as 110 pages of Guru Grath Sahib, stolen from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in June, were found torn off outside a gurdwara.
Following this, six more cases of sacrilege have been reported from other districts coupled with widespread protests across the State. During protests, two protesters were killed in police firing on October 14 at Behbal Kalan village near Faridkot.
Seeing things going out of hand, the Centre has deployed paramilitary forces in four districts Amritsar, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and ludhiana, with more companies expected to arrive in the State.
The police has claimed that the preliminary investigations of the two accused revealed that they were getting instructions and funding from “foreign handlers” in Australia and Dubai. And now, the police is focussing on the “possible involvement of foreign elements” in fuelling turbulence in the State.