Punjab Police arrested Patiala riot mastermind Barjinder Singh Parwana from Mohali at around 7.30 AM today. He had come to Mohali from Mumbai to instigate a riot, police said.
Parwana has a criminal background and already four cases are registered against him, Punjab Police told the press.
The police have registered six FIRs, in which 25 people have been named as rioters. Of these, Harish Singla, Kuldeep Singh and Daljit Singh have already been arrested.
The police were continuously raiding possible hideouts of pro-Khalistan elements for the arrest of Parwana. A team of CIA Patiala led by Inspector Shaminder Singh arrested Parwana from the Mohali airport this morning once he reached here on a Vistara flight from Mumbai.
Post-Patiala, Parwana wanted more riots
Parwana is one of the Sikh religious leaders of Punjab, who heads the Damdami Taksal Jatha Rajpura. His image is that of a brazen Sikh ultra. He keeps publishing videos and statements of Sikh terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale on Instagram and other social media platforms.
To the uninitiated, Bhindranwale used to be a small-time priest in a village of Punjab whom then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi tried to exploit to belittle the Shiromani Akali Dal that Congress (I) [now called Indian National Congress] was unable to otherwise defeat in the state assembly elections. Bhindranwale turned rogue soon, a renegade in Indira Gandhi’s sinister political strategy, and began a phase of Sikh terrorism, demanding the separation of Punjab from India that he called Khalistan, named after Khalsa, the path of Sikhism.
Parwana was incidentally born in 1984, the year Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh outside the prime minister’s residence. Parwana went to Singapore for two years after graduating from college. On coming back to India, he established his own taksal — Sikh term for a seminary — and became a preacher.
Most of Parwana’s social media posts contain text, photos and videos promoting terrorism. Parwana uploaded a picture in his Instagram profile, in which he is seen wearing a half-sleeve shirt, brandishing a tattoo of Bhindranwale on his right arm. Also check out this post:
On 8 July 2021, Mohali Police had arrested Parwana. On the complaint of Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri, a case had been registered against him under Sections 153, 505 and 120 of the Indian Penal Code. Patiala Range IG Mukhwinder Singh Chinna said that four FIRs had been registered against him, for which a Mohali court has started proceedings.
As Parwana planned to raise the Khalistani heat in Punjab, many youth in Patiala were influenced by his rhetoric and demagoguery. They were gradually growing into a menace for a normal town life, with frequent processions, blockades, sloganeering, picketing, demonstrations, etc.
In this backdrop, a faction of Punjab Shiv Sena, which swears by the name of Bal Thackeray, planned an anti-Khalistan march in Patiala on 30 April in protest against Sikh for Justice terrorist Gurpatwant Pannu. Local Sikh organisations, some of which have turned pro-Khalistan, started opposing it. This led to the violent clash of Friday where affiliates of Sikh organisations launched an attack on Hindus in general and Shiv Sena activists in particular the day before yesterday. The situation became so tense that the administration had to stop internet service and clamp a curfew in Patiala.
Several videos surfaced, showing the police clueless about tackling the riot. Next day, the Punjab government removed Patiala IG Rakesh Agarwal, the senior superintendent of police and the city SP.
Hindu organisations raised slogans against the administration
Yesterday, Hindu organisations raised slogans against the Patiala administration over the incident. They said that until those directly involved in the riot are not arrested, the protest will continue. They received an assurance from the administration that the suspects would be arrested, after which the organisationa called off the strike that they had appealed for, to be observed in the next two days.
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