Congress leaders from Punjab on Saturday blamed the AAP government in the state and the NDA government at the Centre for the “deteriorating law and order in the state” and termed the recent storming of Ajnala police station in Amritsar by supporters of radical preacher Amritpal Singh a “failure” of intelligence agencies and security forces. Speaking at the 85th plenary meeting of the Congress in Raipur, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Pratap Singh Bajwa condemned the pro-Khalistan stand of Amritpal and said never ever in independent India has Punjab seen such an attack. “We are secular and nationalist. Being a border state, Punjab has faced a lot of violence from the 1960s to the 1980s. About 2,500 people from Congress died due to the conflict of secession. Finally, when we were moving towards the road to recovery, this happened (attack police). It has never happened in Punjab in 75 years (of Independence) that a man (Amritpal Singh) tells the police he will get a person released from jail and succeeds in doing so. The police took back their case. This is a failure of the state government as well as the central government. Unfortunately, there is not a single statement from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann,” said Bajwa. Supporters of Amritpal, brandishing swords and guns, stormed into the Ajnala police station complex on Thursday and camped there till they were “assured” that an arrested aide, Lovepreet Singh 'Toofan, would be released. Toofan, a kidnapping accused, walked out of jail on Friday. Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, chief of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, said he had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in October last year, asking him to monitor the activities of Amritpal but no appropriate action was taken. “We want India. 99.99 per cent of people in Punjab do not want Khalistan. I had written a letter to Amit Shah about Amritpal Singh in October. I had raised concerns asking them (Home Department) to keep an eye on his activities. We lost a lot 40 years ago due to this. Even Amit Shah had said he was concerned about the deteriorating law and order in Punjab. So what did Amit Shah do? This is very dangerous politics. Punjabi people are being divided.” “Why was the FIR (against Toofan) registered wrongly? Who registered it? There are no comments from the chief minister on this. Our resolve against this (secession) is clear. Back then (in 1992), terrorists (Khalistani groups) said those who would contest elections would be killed. But Congress fought and won the elections. Many leaders were butchered. We will die safeguarding Punjabis,” said the Punjab PCC chief. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former deputy chief minister of Punjab, said the storming of the police station was a complete failure of the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and Border Security Force. “Punjab is the head of India. This is a national security threat. We condemn it. Bhagwant Mann and the BJP are trying to end the peace in Punjab,” he said. Vijay Inder Singla, a former minister, said the situation will affect Punjab's economy as it did in the past. “Many people took their investments away from Punjab when such (secession) a conflict took place in the past. We want the work environment to be peaceful. If such instances continue, we will lose investments. This will affect the economy and Punjab cannot afford it again.”
