Bitta calls for banning Mann from contesting all elections

Phagwara, Nov 17 (UNI) All India Anti-Terrorist Front president Maninderjit Singh Bitta has urged the Election Commission to impose a ban on all political activities of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), led by former MP Simranjit Singh Mann, for its "anti-national" stance.

He also urged the CEC to debar Mr Mann and his associates from contesting all elections ''in the national interest''.

Addressing a news conference here today, Mr Bitta alleged that Mr Mann and his party were hand-in-glove with anti-national elements and were raising Khalistani slogans openly. ''A few officers of the state intelligence agencies had politicalised the department and were helping anti-national activists in order to save their own posts,'' he said.

Mr Bitta also alleged that many hardcore terrorists were being given VIP treatments in jails with the connivance of several officers. To substantiate his claim, he refered to the recent recover of mobile SIM cards from the high security Nabha Central jail.

He said that the Front will observe, ''Anti-Terrorist Day'' on December 13 in Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi, where he will request all families of martyred jawans from security forces to return their gallantry medals, if the government did not act according to the Supreme Court decision in the Afzal case.

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