According to a news report by “Express News Service” (ENS) police remand of British national Jaswant Singh Azad is further extended for two more days.
“Sources in Jalandhar police claimed that during interrogation, Azad disclosed names of nearly a dozen other British nationals, who are directly or indirectly involved in militant activities” reports ENS.
The news report published at the website of News Service states: “Sources said that he named some persons from UK, including Paramjit Singh Bal of Sikh Channel, Jaswant Singh Thekedar of Kalgidhar gurdwara, Balbir Singh of Babbar Khalsa International, Ranjit Singh alias Rana of Sangat Channel, Lashminder Singh Dhaliwal of Dal Khalsa, Jarnail Singh Malli of New Castle gurdwara and admitted to have provided funds to these people”.
According to the news reports, “Based on the information, Jalandhar police officials have alerted the security agencies in the state and Centre even as Azad’s police remand was extended by two days. They will also send a report to the British government”.
It is notable that the State and security agencies are claiming that the militancy was at the edge of revival in Punjab. India’s Ministry of Home Affairs has also raised concern in this regard and referred to secret reports & inputs by agencies in this regard.
On the other hand certain media sections have rebutted the claims regarding revival of militancy in Punjab.
Recently a detailed report was published in Rozana Ajit, one of prominent Punjabi newspapers of Punjab, that maintained that it was not proper to term the efforts to rehabilitate the families or orphans of militants of 1980-90 movement as “creation of sleeper cells”.
Similarly, Punjab News Line in a recent opinion article has put police & security agencies claims under suspicion that Akali Dal Panch Pardhani leaders Daljit Singh Bittu & Kulvir Singh Barapind were attempting to revive the militancy in Punjab.
“While initially the police claimed to have put them under preventive custody only, in view of the law and order situation, later the duo were slapped with serious charges of sedition. The arrests have genuinely caused concern among various human rights groups and other panthic organizations” reads the PNL news report.
“The way Punjab police are going about the investigation and coming out with the facts indeed raises certain questions which need answers lest the people’s faith in law gets shattered. It is not necessary that what police are claiming may not be entirely right, but the way police went about the case makes them sound less credible” it adds.
The Sikh Diaspora groups have claimed that the whole process is fabricated by Indian state and Intelligence agencies to discredit worldwide efforts by Sikhs to put forth their voice democratically.