Harjinder Singh Dhami, the president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), headed a march from the Golden Temple to the DC office in Amritsar on Friday, demanding the release of youths who were recently arrested in Punjab due to an ongoing crackdown to hunt Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh.
Dhami urged the Punjab government to exonerate all those charged under Section 751 and to withdraw the draconian NSA against them.
He also stated that he intends to give a memorandum to the DC of Amritsar, requesting the release of the innocent youth who have been placed under house arrest.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is an organization in India responsible for the management of Gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, and the union territory of Chandigarh.
Amritpal Singh is a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland.
Police accuse Singh and his aides of creating discord in the state, which is haunted by the memories of a violent separatist movement in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. The movement prompted a brutal military operation by the Indian government that killed thousands of people, according to official estimates.
On Wednesday, an undated video was released in which Amritpal Singh is himself claiming that he was not arrested.
“If the Punjab government had the intention of arresting me, police could have come to my house and I would have given in”, the preacher has said.
He released another video message on 30 March. In his second video, Amritpal Singh denied rumors that he had put three conditions for surrendering before the police. He said he never talked about surrendering.
