Pb CM warns Damdami Taksal over threats to Sikh guru

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh today issued a stern warning to the Damdami Taksal -- a Sikh seminary -- over their alleged threats to Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale and cautioned them against any attempt to take law into their own hands.

The CM also ordered the police to enhance the security of the Sikh pracharak, and to thoroughly examine the video in which the purported death threat has been issued to him, an official press release said.

The video, which went viral on May 20, allegedly showed Damdami Taksal's spokesperson Charanjit Singh Jassowal issuing a death threat to Dhadiranwale.

The chief minister, who took suo motu cognizance on the issue, as per the release, has asked the Damdami Taksal not to step out of their religious boundaries and said that he would treat any such acts as a threat to the state's peace and harmony.

Though all for granting full freedom to religious institutions, Singh said he won't tolerate the "misuse" of religion to spread terror or score personal brownie points, and warned the Sikh seminary to put an immediate stop to such activities, else he would take it as an act of hostility and act accordingly.

He added that inflammatory speeches and hate crimes had no place in Punjab, a state which he said had already suffered enough at the hands of terrorism.

According to the release, the chief minister has also asked the police to identify and scrutinise the video -- in which the Damdami Taksal spokesperson was alleged to have made open threats to Dhadrianwale -- and take suitable action against the perpetrators.

In 2016, the cavalcade of Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale was attacked by a group of heavily-armed persons near Ludhiana. Though Dhadrianwale had a miraculous escape, his follower Sant Bhupinder Singh Khalsa had died in the attack.