Controversy over the central intelligence agencies' interaction with pro-Khalistani youths

The incident came to the fore when one youth Lovepreet Singh who is from Mansa district and is considered to be a supporter of pro-Khalistan movement revealed to Etv Bharat that on May 22 at 7 am in the morning 17 youths from this district were taken to a school in Bathinda police line.

Bhatinda: Controversy cropped up after some officers of central intelligence agencies started interacting with youths considered to be supporters of pro-Khalistan movement from four districts of Punjab last week. Nearly 36 youths were brought to Bhatinda police lines and were engaged in a conversation with the intelligence officers.

Though IG Bathinda Range Shiv Kumar Verma said that considering the deteriorating law and order situation in the state it was only a routine process only to get information but youths who were summoned to the Bathinda police line considered it to be an infringement to their right to liberty. The incident came to the fore when one youth Lovepreet Singh who is from Mansa district and is considered to be a supporter of pro-Khalistan movement revealed to Etv Bharat that on May 22 at 7 am in the morning 17 youths from this district were taken to a school in Bathinda police line. Not only from Mansa alone but youths from Sri Muktsar Sahib, Faridkot and Bathinda were also taken.

When asked about this, Verma told Etv Bharat “This is a routine process and the state police has nothing to do with it. This is a module designed by CID where they wanted to interact with the groups to understand the situation. They wanted to get information about the present day situation”.

“In this deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab it is easily understandable that the intelligence agencies need more information so that they can keep the law enforcing agencies prepared for any kind of untoward situation. There is a routine process,” Verma said.

“There was nothing negative in the whole process. It was a positive approach. We didn’t even pick the youths. They were only asked to come and after the discussion they were dropped. This was only a seminar-like thing,” Verma added.

Going against the IG's theory, Singh - speaking to Etv Bharat, Singh said, “How is it possible that they have only zeroed in on youths who support the Khalistani movement. They asked us questions to find out people who are behind the movement and who inspires us.

“We are supporters of Khalistan; we are also members of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar and so we were called. As per a Supreme Court judgment, there is nothing wrong in raising the demand for Khalistan. There is nothing wrong in demanding a separate nation for the Sikh. It is neither unconstitutional nor is it a crime,” Singh said.

In 1995, the Supreme Court gave an important decision in favour of slogans on Khalistan. In a case between Balwant Singh and Government of Punjab where Balwant and his friend Balwinder Singh allegedly raised slogans like 'Raj Karega Khalsa', the apex court had said “According to the established law, the Government of India is not threatened by a single shouting of slogans by a few individuals on multiple occasions. Moreover, doing so does not create a sense of mutual enmity or hatred between different communities or religions.”