Punjab government withdraws 'security cover' provided to 424 people

Chandigarh, May 28: The Punjab Police has ordered the withdrawal of security of 424 people, including former MLAs, Jathedars of two Takhts, heads of Deras, and police officers.

The additional director general of police (security), however, said in an order on Friday that the security personnel were "being withdrawn on a purely temporary basis in connection with an emergent law and order duty".

Prominent among the Sikh temporal authorities to have lost the security cover is Giani Harpreet Singh, Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib in Bathinda. He also holds the charge of Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs.

The security of Giani Raghbir Singh, Jathedar of Takht Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib district; Sant Niranjan Dass, chief of Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Jalandhar; Satguru Udhay Singh Namdhari, Bhaini Sahib, Ludhiana; Giani Jagtar Singh, head granthi at Golden Temple in Amritsar; Baba Lakha Singh, Gurdwara Nanaksar Kaleran wale, Jagraon; and Sant Tarminder Singh, Dera chief of Kahna Dhesian, Goraya in Jalandhar has also been withdrawn, as per the order.

Ten personnel deployed to protect Dera Radha Soami Satsang Beas, nine of Dera Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan, Noormahal and six to guard Shahi Imam Punjab, Mohammad Usman Ludhianvi have also been withdrawn.

Among MLAs whose security has been rolled back are Shiromani Akali Dal legislator from Majitha seat Ganieve Kaur Majithia, Congress MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment Pargat Singh and AAP MLA from Ludhiana North Madan Lal Bagga.

The security cover of former Congress MLAs Kuljit Singh Nagra, Balwinder Singh Laddi, Harminder Gill, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Surjit Dhiman, Hardial Kamboj and Sukhpal Bhullar, former BJP and SAD legislators Dinesh Babbu, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Kanwarjit Singh and Gurpartap Singh Wadala has also been dropped.

Former AAP MLAs Kanwar Sandhu and Jagtar Singh Jagga have also lost their security cover.

The personnel deployed to protect former MLA and BJP leader Fatehjang Bajwa, former minister Tikshan Sood and BJP chief spokesperson Anil Sareen have also been called back.
The security of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speakers Rana K P Singh and Nirmal Singh Kahlon, former deputy speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti and former MP Shamsher Singh Dullo has also been withdrawn.

Iqbal Singh Lalpura, chairperson, National Commission for Minorities; Sanjay Srivastava, chairman of Bhakra Beas Management Board; former Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa; Raj Bahadur, vice chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences; and singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, who is known as Sidhu Moosewala; and former MP Rajiv Shukla are the other prominent leaders whose protection has been rolled back.

Among police officers whose security cover has been cut are additional director general of police rank officers -S K Asthana, L K Yadav, M F Farooqui, Varinder Kumar, Parveen Kumar Sinha, Shashi Prabha Dewedi, Arpit Shukla, Ishwar Singh, B Chandra Sekhar and V Neerja.

The security of IPS officer Harpreet Singh Sidhu, head of the anti-drug Special Task Force has also been reduced.

Among the inspector general rank officers whose protection has been reduced are AK Mittal, R K Jaiswal, Jaskaran Singh, Jatinder Singh Aulakh, Gautam Cheema, Gurinder Dhillon and Ananya Gautam.

The security of several former director general of police rank officers Chander Shekhar, NPS Aulakh, P C Dogra, RP Singh, S K Verma, R K Gupta, Rajinder Singh Mohammad Mustafa, MK Tiwari, D R Bhatti, Sanjiv Gupta and Rajan Gupta has been withdrawn, as per the order.