Headlines
Khalistan movement reviving in Punjab: Congress MP
By
Brajendra Nath SinghNew Delhi, July 27
Congress parliamentarian
from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu, said on Monday that the terrorist
attack in Punjab's Gurdaspur district was an attempt to revive the
Khalistan movement in the state and urged the Punjab and central
governments to immediately take necessary steps to stop it.
"The
terrorist attack in Gurdaspur is a very serious threat to the nation.
Since the last few months, there have been attempts to revive the
Khalistan movement but the state and central agencies were continuously
ignoring it. After this attack, both the Centre and state governments
should act tough against such elements," Bittu told IANS.
He said
that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Khalistani and other
terrorist groups have joined hands in support of the Khalistan movement.
"Yesterday
(Sunday), pro-Khalistan slogans were raised in front of Punjab Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal. For the last few months, these activities
have increased but were not dealt with properly by both the
governments," he added.
Bittu said that the "wrong policies" of
the state and central governments gave an opportunity to Khalistan
supporters to revive their movement.
"The central government is
shifting terrorists lodged in different parts of the country to Punjab.
There was no need for it. Why are terrorists from Bengaluru and Bareilly
being shifted to Punjab jails," asked Bittu.
The Congress leader
also accused the Badal government in Punjab of "adopting soft approach"
towards Surat Singh Khalsa, who is on a hunger strike since January
this year to seek permanent release of Sikh political prisoners.
He
said that bowing to the demands of Surat Singh, the Punjab government
had released many political prisoners and this mistake of the government
had boosted the morale of Khalistan supporters.
He demanded
that the Punjab government immediately end its soft approach towards
Surat Singh Khalsa and try to end his hunger strike.
Bittu said
that he will soon meet union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and present the
related facts to him. He also said that he will request the home
minister to visit Punjab to take stock of the rising activities of the
Khalistan supporters.
The Congress parliamentarian said that it
was wrong to link the terrorist attack in Gurdaspur to the Mumbai serial
blast convict Yakub Memon's impending hanging.
"It will be a
mistake to link the Gurdaspur terror attack to Memon. I am from Punjab
and I know what is going on there. If the government doesn't learn
lessons from this attack, the situation in Punjab is going to become
worse," he said.
He said Punjab needed to be more alert and
vigilant. "We have seen the darkest decade not long ago and lost
thousands of precious lives and we cannot afford that again," he warned.
(Brajendra Nath Singh can be contacted at [email protected])