Badal’s car rescues, Amarinder’s dawn raids

With only five days left for Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee polls and the numbers game becoming increasingly grim, SAD president Pa...

With only five days left for Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee polls and the numbers game becoming increasingly grim, SAD president Parkash Singh Badal yesterday decided to marshal his flock together by launching ‘Operation Rescue’.

Fresh from a meeting of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) yesterday evening, the former CM’s greying tribe of Akali musketeers hit the road to ‘‘free’’ SGPC vice-president Kewal Singh Badal and another member, Harbans Kaur Sukhana, both purportedly under house arrest by the Punjab police.

500 BADAL LOYALISTS HELD

Chandigarh/Ambala: Over 500 SAD workers were arrested on Friday on apprehension of breach of peace and former SGPC president Jagir Kaur booked for ‘‘power theft’’, even as the SGPC warned police to stay away from the venue of the Nov 12 polls. Thousands of Akali activists went underground even as Badal claimed the number of those nabbed in raids has swelled to thousands. ‘‘Terror tactic is in full play, and so is the might of Khalsa panth…This is the rape of democracy in broad daylight,’’ Badal said over the phone.
Meanwhile, SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar has asserted that SAD would challenge the orders of the Shiromani Gurdwara Judicial Commission suspending four members owing allegiance to SAD (Badal) from the primary membership. —ENS

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While the police claim they are merely providing protection to the members, Badal loyalists call it a government ruse to keep a check on their movements. According to SAD sources, policemen have also been posted outside houses of former minister Swaran Singh Phillaur and Gurmit Singh Daduwal, and both were not being allowed to move out.

However, if Badal managed to ‘‘rescue’’ some of his men yesterday, the state police struck back in a dramatic fashion, rounding up hundreds of SAD workers in a bid to stop them from reaching the Golden Temple premises for the elections.

‘‘Pre-dawn arrests have been carried out all over Punjab…the state government has let loose a reign of repression against party workers,’’ SAD general secretary Capt Kanwaljit Singh told PTI. ‘‘I was myself detained (in Ludhiana district) yesterday. I apprehend that I will be detained if I try to enter Punjab territory again.’’

A report said 142 activists of SAD and BJP were arrested in pre-dawn swoops in Moga and Faridkot districts. Those held in Moga included some municipal council members, SAD city president Rajinder Singh Dhillon, lone BJP councillor Mohan Lal, besides several sarpanchs and member panchayats, the report said. At least 28 SAD workers were picked up from Jalandhar district.

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Refusing to give any details, police officals called the action ‘‘a precautionary measure’’ in view of the November 12 SGPC polls.

Prominent among those held were Dalbir Singh Dhirowali, Ajaib Singh, Gurbachan Singh Kathuria, Paramjit Singh Bhatia and Kanwaljit Singh Bhatia.

Police also carried out raids on the residences of Sarabjit Singh Makkar, ex-chairman of the Improvement Trust; Gurcharan Singh Narula, ex-deputy mayor; Amarjit Singh, president of a local gurdwara; and Gurbachan Singh, SAD general secretary (urban). However, they managed to give a ‘‘slip’’ to the police.

Incidentally, no raids were conducted on members of the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD), loyal to Gurcharan Singh Tohra who is seeking help of the Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission (SGJC) to capture the SGPC from the SAD.

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Badal, who has been accused of detaining SGPC members loyal to him at his Balasar farmhouse in Haryana, did the rescue act like a true-blue filmi hero yesterday, hustling Parbandhak vice-president Kewal into his car when the latter stepped outside his house to greet him. Though forewarned about Badal’s visit, the cops guarding the house could only stare in disbelief when the former CM whisked Kewal away from right under their nose.

On his way back from Jagraon, Badal’s colleagues halted at Akalgarh village near the Halwara air base to ‘rescue’ Bibi Harbans Kaur Sukhana, also under ‘police protection’.

While Sukhana managed to give police the slip by scaling the back wall with the help of a ladder, former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur and ex-finance minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh claim they were waylaid. The duo say they were later detained by Jagraon police at a local PCO for over five hours, in wait for SSP M.S. Chhinna. It was only after Bibi Sukhana’s husband told the SSP that his wife had gone away on her own that the duo was finally released.