Capt Amarinder responsible for Amritsar attack says Sukhbir Badal

(Says attack direct fallout of CM’s policy to support radicals)

Chandigarh, November 19 – Former Deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today squarely blamed Congress chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh for the Amritsar hand grenade attack and said the CM’s hands were stained with the blood of innocent people.

Addressing a press conference at his residence here in the Legislator Flats after returning from the Police Headquarters after giving a statement regarding a recent FIR registered with respect to the Kotkapura firing incident, the SAD president said the tragic attack was a direct fall out of the chief minister’s policy to support radicals and even use them to marginalize the mainstream moderate Akalis. He said this was done in the 1980s and 1990s also. “Now again Punjab is being pushed into bloodshed”, he said adding even the Ranjit Singh Commission was used to divert attention from the abject failures of the Congress government.

Mr Badal said now after the barbarity in Amritsar the people and even Congress leaders were questioning the patronage extended by Capt Amarinder to radicals. “Ludhiana mp Ravneet Bittu is now blaming Daduwal for yesterday’s tragedy and even talking about the crores collected by him. “Why was Bittu silent when we gave proof of the dinner meeting invitation extended to Daduwal by Amarinder and even details of the Rs 18 crore collected by him?”.

Stating that the chief minister was incompetent, Mr Badal said he had even asked the SIT members at the police headquarters to tell how many times the chief minister had held meetings on law and order. “I did not get any response”, he said adding “I made it clear to the SIT officials that they had been given a mandate to malign the SAD and that was why I had been called for questioning today”.

Giving further details, the SAD president said he had asked one of the officers – IG Arunpal Singh as to why he had called him to the Kotkapura police station ten years back in a camera robbery case as head of a SIT then. Stating SITs were made by Congress governments either to implicate rivals or give clean chits when required, he said a recent SIT had withdrawn serious cases against radicals elements who had targeted his vehicle in Amritsar recently.

Stating that today’s SIT questioning smacked of political vendetta, the SAD president said he had been called with regard to an FIR registered with regard to the Kotkapura firing at the instance of the police, a fact which was also recorded in the FIR. He said this was not all. “I was questioned about what directions I gave on October 14,2015 when I was out of the State after duly informing the chief minister”. He also disclosed that he had asked Mr Kunwar Vijay Partap, another SIT member, as to whether he had received any directions to clear people from the Beas bridge in 2015 when he was IG Border Range.

Asserting that SIT members even asked irrelevant questions based on hearsay, he made a categorical statement that he had never met film actor Akshay Kumar outside Punjab ever. Mr Badal also came down heavily on AAP leader H S Phoolka for claiming that the Indian army could be responsible for the Amritsar attack, saying this in itself was an anti-national act. He also condemned Congress minister Sukhjinder Randhawa for supporting Phoolka’s assertion and said due action should be taken against him also.