Sikhs stage black flag protests against holy book desecration

Carrying black flags and placards, Sikh activists on Tuesday staged peaceful protests in various areas of Punjab against the desecration of their holy book last month, with demands for a time-bound probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The protesters were also demanding recovery of stolen ‘bir’ (religious scripture) of the Guru Granth Sahib from village Burj Jawahar Singhwala on June 1 at Faridkot, arrest of real desecrators and of those policemen who had fired at protesters, killing two Sikh activists and injuring several others at Behbal Kalan village last month, and making their names public. They also demanded scrapping permanently the case registered against two brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, who were released on Monday, with the police saying there was not sufficient evidence. 

The protesters, including women, formed a human chain adjacent to roads, including National Highways and state highways criss-crossing the state without disturbing traffic, police said. Chanting ‘Satnam Waheguru’, they were supported by representatives of Dalit and Muslim communities.

Both the India-Pakistan cross-border Sada-e-Sarhad buses, plying to and fro New Delhi and Lahore, passed through Phagwara normally, police said. The protesters were agitating against sacrilege incidents of the Guru Granth Sahib at different places in the state last month. Some of the placards propagated the November 10 ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ (congregation of Sikhs) convened by radical Sikh outfits at Amritsar, police said.