The East Punjab government has withdrawn the security of 424 VIPs in the state.These include former MLAs, jathedars of two Takhts, heads of various deras and police officers.
All withdrawn personnel will report to the special DGP at Jalandhar Cantt on Saturday.
The additional director general of police (security), in an order on Friday, however, said the security personnel were "being withdrawn on a purely temporary basis in connection with an emergent law and order duty".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; 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Kaleran wale, Jagraon; and Sant Tarminder Singh, dera chief of Kahna Dhesian, Goraya in Jalandhar, has also been withdrawn, as per the order.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Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan, Noormahal, and six to guard Shahi Imam Punjab, Mohammad Usman Ludhianvi, have also been withdrawn.
The security of Giani Raghbir Singh, Jathedar of Takht Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib; 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Kaleran wale, Jagraon; and Sant Tarminder Singh, dera chief of Kahna Dhesian, Goraya in Jalandhar, has also been withdrawn, as per the order.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Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan, Noormahal, and six to guard Shahi Imam Punjab, Mohammad Usman Ludhianvi, have also been withdrawn.
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 Fateh Jang Bajwa, former minister Tikshan Sood and BJP chief spokesperson Anil Sareen have also been called back.
The security of former Punjab Vidhan Sabha speakers Rana KP 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and Nirmal Singh Kahlon, former deputy speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti and former MP Shamsher Singh Dullo has also been withdrawn.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 Sidhu Moosewala; and former MP Rajiv Shukla are the other prominent leaders whose protection has been rolled back.
Among serving and former police officers whose security cover has been cut are additional director general of police-rank officers – SK Asthana, LK Yadav, MF 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, RK 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, PC Dogra, RP Singh, SK Verma, RK Gupta, Rajinder Singh Mohammad Mustafa, MK Tiwari, DR Bhatti, Sanjiv Gupta and Rajan Gupta has been withdrawn, as per the order.
