Two Akali Dal activists arrested

Chandigarh, December 27: A day after the annihilation of the statute of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, two activists of the youth wing of the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have been arrested by the Punjab Police in Ludhiana, police said on Wednesday.

Those arrested are youth Akali Dal activists Meetpal Durgin and Gurdeep Singh Gosha. The SAD on Wednesday strongly opposed their arrest.

The statute was annihilated allegedly by workers of the SAD s youth wing in Salem Tibri area of Ludhiana on Tuesday following which Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ordered strict action by the district police against the culprits.

Punjab s ruling Congress and opposition SAD were on Tuesday involved in a bitter war of words after the statute was annihilated. Congress MP Ravneet Sing Bittu later cleaned the statute with milk.

Blaming Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress for killing hundreds of sikhs in 1984 anti-sikh riots, the youth Akhali Dal activist used to spray black paint on face of Rajiv Gandhi and red paint to hands.

The activists then announced that they were doing this (annihilism) to show their ire against the role of Rajiv Gandhi, father of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, in the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 in the aftereffect of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two bodyguards.

Strongly condemning the annihilism, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday asked SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to stop indulging in trivial politics and asked him to apologise.

Congress Sewa Dal activists later blackened the faces of SAD president Sukhbir Badal and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on posters in Ludhiana in retaliation against the statute annihilation. They also burnt posters of both Akali Dal leaders.

Punjab has a Congress government since March 2017, headed by Amarinder Singh.