The atmosphere is tense in Punjab over the desecration of holy books. After days of unrest, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that a big conspiracy to disrupt peace in the state has been busted and all culprits have been arrested.
Police has said that foreign hand is suspected as the arrested were found to have made calls to Dubai and Australia. Heavy security has been deployed to control the law and order situation in the state.
With the arrest of two brothers, who committed the offence in connection with "someone in Australia", Punjab Police on Tuesday claimed to have cracked one of the seven cases of sacrilege of holy books in the state.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under ADGP IPS Sahota constituted after the sacrilege incident in Bargari village gurudwara in Faridkot and later at six other places in the state, concluded that "the accused became soft targets of anti national forces due to greed and ambition of becoming rich".
Sahota said the two brothers, identified as Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, of Panjgrain village of Faridkot, were arrested in connection with the first incident of sacrilege in the state in Bargari village in Faridkot, where a violent clash erupted between police and Sikh protesters in which two persons were killed.
"Police took them into custody after intercepting their mobile calls between October 14 to 16," he said. He also read out the transcripts of the calls between the two brothers. "The brothers were in touch with someone in Australia," he said, adding that police was trying to trace the person abroad.
The ADGP said more details of the investigations, including the foreign links, would be detailed in a couple of days as Punjab Police was finding the missing links and identifying persons operating from abroad and also their local conduits.
Sahota did not give out details of the accused abroad, saying "by doing so we will compromise with the investigations". A total of six persons have so far been arrested in connection with five of the seven incidents which took place in the districts of Faridkot, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Tarn Taran besides Bhatinda and Ferozepur where the police is expecting a breakthrough soon.
The perpetrators behind Amritsar, Ludhiana and Tarn Taran incidents had already been arrested, which included a woman, taking the total number of those arrested to six. "They all are working in the gurudwaras... some of them are granthis," he said.
On the Korian village sacrilege issue in Sangrur, he said that the Sikh shrine sewadar Hardev Singh had himself confessed to the crime.
On the Behbal Kalan village firing incident in which two persons died, he said the case is being separately probed. He said that both the brothers are baptised Sikhs and had links with several organisations.
He ruled out involvement of followers of Dera Sacha Sauda behind the incidents of sacrilege. He said police is probing the incidents at Ferozepur and Bathinda and assured that culprits will be caught soon.
The Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds Home portfolio, described the incidents as "unfortunate" and assured strictest punishments to the culprits and also asked people to do prayers.
Punjab is on the boil due to series of incidents of sacrilege of 'birs' (scriptures) of Guru Granth Sahib at seven places in the past one week which led to protests by Sikh organisations who blocked traffic at various places.
Sukhbir said the Punjab government would unearth all conspiracies behind the ghastly desecration of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari village in Faridkot which had led to widespread outbursts across the state. The government had made it its mission to arrest the culprits behind all incidents of sacrilege and had solved almost all the cases including the incident at Bargari village, he said.
Assuring Punjabis that the government would get to the bottom of the conspiracy, he appealed to the people to hold Akhand Paths and hold prayers for "Sarbat da Bhalla". Sahota said in the Bargari incident, the Punjab Police had intercepted the two brothers mutual as well as Rupinder's foreign calls to Australia and Dubai.
He said that during the interrogation, the foreign link as well as funding had been established. Sahota informed that during interrogation of Rupinder Singh, it has been found that he has been talking with their "masters" abroad and discussed about delivery of cash to them in lieu of their acts of committing sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
Sahota also shared the clips of conversation between Rupinder and his foreign "masters" and between both brothers Rupinder and Jaswinder, who was using his relative Gurbachan Singh's number.
He talked to his brother on October 16 at 10:45 AM and to his foreign "master" in Australia on October 15 at 10:37 AM, he said.
Assuring Punjabis that the government would get to the bottom of the conspiracy, he appealed to the people to hold Akhand Paths and hold prayers for "Sarbat da Bhalla". Sahota said in the Bargari incident, the Punjab Police had intercepted the two brothers mutual as well as Rupinder's foreign calls to Australia and Dubai.
(With PTI inputs)
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