'Shaheedi' memorial to be built at Harike Pattan, says Akal Takht Jathedar amid Satluj row

Tarn Taran, Jul 14 (PTI) Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj on Tuesday said that a 'Shaheedi' memorial will be set up at Harike Pattan here as he performed 'ardas' (Sikh prayer) for the eternal peace of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and Sikh youths who were declared missing or were allegedly victims of extrajudicial killings when Punjab was in the grip of militancy. The 'ardas' on the banks of the Satluj river had been announced by the head priest of the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs after the issue came into focus following a row over Diljit Dosanjh-starrer film Satluj which is based on Khalra, who had brought such cases to light. Addressing a gathering Tuesday evening following the 'ardas', Gargajj asked the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to build a memorial at the site dedicated to the people whose bodies were disposed of as unclaimed during the militancy period. He said that Harike Pattan would now be known as 'Shaheedi Pattan'. The Jathedar also announced that the Akal Takht, in coordination with the SGPC, would prepare a record documenting those who were allegedly "killed as unidentified persons between 1982 and 1995". A large number of people had gathered at the Harike Pattan here. Among them were family members of those who went missing during the militancy period. Gargajj had earlier said that, to date, no collective 'ardas' was held "for the innocent youths, women, elderly people, and children who fell victim to government and police excesses in Punjab". Before the prayers on Tuesday evening, Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu had appealed to the Jathedar to remember all the victims of the violence witnessed in Punjab during the 1990s in his 'ardas'. "The blood that was shed then did not belong to terrorists alone, nor to the police, nor only to innocent civilians. It was Punjab's blood. It was the blood of Punjabis," the minister said in a statement on X. The BJP leader had on Sunday questioned why the film Satluj had underplayed "the massacres of innocent Hindus" and the "immense sacrifice of Punjab Police personnel, security forces and countless brave citizens who fought terrorism ". On Monday, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, wife of slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, had urged the Akal Takht to form a People's Commission to determine the actual number of people who went missing, the number of unidentified bodies, and those killed in alleged fake police encounters in Punjab during the 80s and 90s. Kaur's remarks came amid renewed public attention on the Khalra case after the release, and subsequent takedown, of the film Satluj from ZEE5. The film, earlier titled 'Punjab '95', is based on the activist's life. Khalra was abducted in front of his house in Amritsar in September 1995. He was later found to have been murdered, though his body was never found. The film was pulled from the OTT platform ZEE5 for viewers in India two days following its release on July 3 after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting cited security concerns. In November 2005, a CBI court had sentenced former DSP Jaspal Singh and ASI Amarjit Singh to life imprisonment for Khalra's abduction and murder, while four other policemen were handed seven-year jail terms each. In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court acquitted Amarjit Singh while enhancing the sentences of the four other convicts to life imprisonment, a decision that the Supreme Court upheld in 2011. PTI CHS VSD RT RT