Pb assembly: AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap seeks debate on sacrilege issue

AAP MLA and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh on Thursday urged the Punjab assembly speaker to allow a debate on the sacrilege issue.

During the Zero Hour on the concluding day of the budget session in the Vidhan Sabha here, the Amritsar North legislator said he had even given a notice for a calling attention motion on the issue but it was not taken up.

“There are some points which the public and the House should know,” said Singh.

He said either he should be given ten minutes for presenting his side or a debate for 30 minutes should be allowed on the issue.

Leader of Opposition and Congress legislator Partap Singh Bajwa supported the demand of the AAP MLA, saying it is a very important issue and connected with the sentiments of people.

The incidents related to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of Guru Ganth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari took place in Faridkot in 2015.

These incidents led to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot. In the police firing at anti-sacrilege protesters in October 2015, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.

Singh took premature retirement in April last year after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a report filed by him into the Kotkapura firing incident in 2015.

Singh was part of the Special Investigation Team which was probing the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan policing firing incidents.

He later joined the Aam Aadmi Party and got elected from Amritsar North assembly seat in the 2022 assembly polls.