Posters of Bhindranwale put up in two UP gurdwaras, five booked

Bareilly (UP): Five members of a gurdwara management committee were booked after posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who led the Khalistan movement, and other separatists were put up in two Sikh shrines here, police said on Monday.

The other posters were of Khalistani separatists Amrik Singh and General Subeg Singh.

A complaint was received on Sunday that posters of Bhindranwale and two other Khalistani separatists were put up in Model Town and Janakpuri gurdwaras. They were taken down following police intervention and an FIR was registered against five members of the Model Town Gurdwara Management Committee, Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Rahul Bhati said.

Those booked are Malik Singh Kalra, Gurdeep Singh Bagga, Harnam Singh, Rajendra Singh Jani and Hardeep Singh Nimma, police said.

Malik Singh Kalra, president of Gurdwara Shri Singh Sabha, Model Town, said that the posters were put up for 'Balidan Diwas' of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots on the directions of the Akal Takht Sahib, the supreme temporal seat of Sikhs.

After police objection, all posters were removed, he said.

"Whatever the police or the government may believe about Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Amrik Singh and General Subeg Singh, for us, all three are martyrs," Kalra said.

Bhidranwale, Amrik Singh and General Subeg Singh were killed in Operation Bluestar carried out by the Army in June 1984 to flush out armed militants from the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine.