SGPC ask commuting death sentence of terrorist

Amritsar, Dec 20: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee(SGPC) today sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention tocommute the death sentence of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF)terrorist Davinderpal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment.

Bhullar was sentenced to death by a Delhi court for hisinvolvement in the attack on former All India Youth Congress AIYC chiefManinderjit Singh Bitta in the mid 1990's outside the AIYC headquartersin New Delhi which left a number of security personnel dead. His deathsentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and his clemency petition iscurrently pending before President A P J Kalam.

A charter of demands, submitted to the Prime Minister by SGPCchief Avtar Singh Makkar outside the Golden Temple complex here,appealed to Dr Singh to use his influence to commute the death sentenceto life imprisonment. The SGPC said that Bhullar was amongst thethousands of Sikhs whose religious sentiments were hurt after'Operation Bluestar' which saw the destruction of the Akal Takht.

The charter of demands was submitted after Mr Singh paid obeisance at the Harmandir Sahib this morning.

The SGPC also demanded stern punishment for those who wereinvolved in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The demands charter pointedout that those responsible for the carnage were yet to be brought tobook.

Another demand listed in the charter was the return of valuablemanuscripts and historical and rare documents which were taken away bythe security forces during the army operation of June 1984 launched toflush out terrorists from the Golden Temple.

UNI