Badal behind Behbal Kalan firing, probe will prove it:

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today alleged that his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal was behind the "unwarranted" police firing in Faridkot during anti-sacrilege protests in 2015 in which two persons were killed.

He said an inquiry commission set up to probe the firing incident will prove his charge.

"How can a superintendent of police order firing? He was clearly instructed to do so," Singh said at a function organised by SAD (Delhi).

He said the Akali rule witnessed 183 such incidents, of which 121 remained unsolved. 13 sacrilege incidents "have been reported since the Congress government took over, of which 12 have been solved".
 

Two persons were killed allegedly in police firing when violent protests had erupted in Faridkot district over the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in October 2015. The Justice Zora Singh Commission of Inquiry had held the police firing at Behbal Kalan as "absolutely unwarranted".

The Punjab chief minister alleged that the Akalis used "religion to further their political objectives" and their government ruined the state's economy and created communal problems.

He claimed that the previous SAD-BJP government registered more than "one lakh fake cases" against innocent people. As many as 28 cases had been registered against a boy in Ajnala.

Singh said the false cases registered during the Badal rule were also a matter of concern and a commission set up by his government to probe these would identify the culprits and bring them to book.

Singh said his government would not spare anyone involved in the drug trade.

The chief minister said, "Unemployment is a major challenge. There are 90 lakh unemployed or under-employed youth in Punjab."

He said his government wil make all efforts to tackle the problem.

SAD Delhi president Paramjit Singh Sarna presented a memento to the Punjab chief minister at the event, which was attended by the representatives of various Sikh organisations of Delhi, prominent industrialists and others.

His wife and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Ajaib Singh Bhatti, and ex-SGPC secretary and Akali leader Manjit Singh Calcutta were also in attendance.