Hardliners slam Punjab government on CBI probe

CHANDIGARH: Hardliners, including Dal Khalsa, today slammed the Punjab government for recommending CBI probe into sacrilege in Faridkot and questioned how Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had claimed earlier that the case had been cracked with the arrest of two people.

Dal Khalsa General Secretary Kanwarpal Singh said it was strange that the Deputy Chief Minister had recently announced that the case had been cracked and had even traced foreign links.

Police had arrested two brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh sometime back, with the state government claiming that they were responsible for the sacrilege and had committed the crime on orders of somebody in Australia.

"People now have a right to ask whether that was a concocted story because if the investigation had been conclusive there would have been no need to refer it to CBI," Kanwarpal Singh said.

United Akali Dal (UAD) convenor Mohkam Singh described the government's recommendation for CBI probe as a "clever ploy".

United Akali Dal and Dal Khalsa said the government step was part of "diversionary tactics to hoodwink the people".

Mohkam demanded immediate and unconditional release of Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, brothers from Panjgrain village in Moga arrested in connection with sacrilege incident at Bargari, the first to take place in the state.

Punjab government had yesterday recommended the CBI probe into incident of sacrilege of Holy book at Faridkot which later triggered widespread protests in the state.