Several people converged in Bargari on Sunday to mark three years since a spate of sacrilege incidents shocked the state and the subsequent police firing at protesters.
As vehicles made their way to the venue, staff at toll plazas allowed them to pass without charging them on the orders of the state government. At ground zero in Bargari, flags bearing Khalistan logos were spotted in the crowd, occasionally accompanied by pro-Khalistan slogans.
Elsewhere, Punjab Cabinet Ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria led Congress lawmakers to participate in a “bhog ceremony” to two civilian deaths at another police firing at Behbal Kalan in 2015.
Protesters are demanding action in both, in the sacrilege cases as well as the subsequent police firing that led to at least two civilian deaths.
The firing and the subsequent deaths occurred under the previous regime led by Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal. A recent commission report indicted Badal, the chief minister of the state then, for ordering police to fire at peaceful protesters in Kotkapura in October 2015. Badal has denied any wrongdoing.(with agency inputs)
