BJP MP Sunny Deol to miss Amit Shah’s rally in Punjab’s Gurdaspur on Sunday

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address rallies in Punjab’s Gurdaspur and Haryana’s Sirsa on Sunday as part of his party’s public outreach to mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government. However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sunny Deol is all set to miss the rally on his home turf owing to the wedding of his son Karan Deol on Sunday.

Deol’s son is tying the knot with his long-time girlfriend Drisha Acharya in Mumbai on Sunday. “Date of the wedding of his son was already fixed and the schedule of the rally was set later. So, he will not be able to attend the rally, and he has taken permission from the party for this,” said Pankaj Joshi, personal secretary to Deol in the constituency.

Apart from Shah, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will also address the rally while state leadership of the saffron party will also be in attendance.

Notably, Deol has been targeted many times by the opposition for his ‘prolonged absence from the constituency.’ Deol also did not come to campaign for BJP candidates and allies in the recently-held Punjab assembly elections.

Meanwhile, a BJP leader said Shah will highlight various achievements of the party-led government at the Centre.

Tight security arrangements have been made for both rallies. All necessary security arrangements for the rally in Gurdaspur have been made, a Punjab Police official said.

For Shah’s visit to Sirsa in Haryana, more than 30 senior police officers, including 15 IPS officers, will be overseeing the security, official sources said.

“Adequate arrangements related to security have been made,” deputy superintendent of police (headquarters), Sirsa, Ajaib Singh said on Saturday.

Haryana Director General of Police PK Agrawal, along with senior officers, has reviewed the security arrangements in Sirsa.

About 130 people, including several farmer leaders, have been kept under watch by the Haryana Police ahead of Sunday’s rally and have been issued notices by their respective police stations asking them to give undertakings that they would not indulge in any disruption of law and order, the sources said.

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha leaders taken into preventive custody

Faridkot Ahead of Amit Shah’s rally in Gurdaspur, Punjab police has taken Qaumi Insaaf Morcha and United Akali Dal (UAD) leader Gurdeep Singh into preventive custody in Bathinda on Saturday.

The morcha had planned a protest rally near the venue of Shah’s program in Gurdaspur to demand the release of Sikh prisoners and justice in sacrilege incidents.

Gurdeep Singh was taken into custody after registering a case under Sections 107 and 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) at Cantonment police station in Bathinda

UAD vice president Sukhjit Singh Dala said that the rally was planned to put forward a demand for the release of all the Sikh prisoners who have completed their sentence and punishment for the culprits involved in sacrilege incidents. “But instead of accepting the genuine demands of the Sikh community, the Punjab government has authorised arrests of Sikh leaders to sabotage our protest. Is demanding justice a crime in Punjab now?” he said.

He also claimed that police have also detained Gurcharan Singh, father of Jagtar Singh Hawara and Pal Singh Faras.