Sacrilege incident: Rahul Gandhi arrives in Faridkot, to meet victims' kin today

Rahul Gandhi will meet farmers in Bathinda district during his two-day visit.

Chandigarh: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will on Thursday meet the families of the victims in Faridkot who were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan near Kotkapura when the Sikhs were protesting against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Argari village in Faridkot on October 14.

Rahul, who arrived in Faridkot early on Thursday, will also meet farmers in Bathinda district during his two-day visit.

Rahul is likely to visit the families of Gurjit Singh and Krishan Singh of Sarawan and Niamiwala village respectively.

Hardliners and Sikhs owing allegiance to different organisations have sought exemplary punishment for the cops involved in the firing incident.

Series of incidents of sacrilege had put Punjab under turmoil with protesters blocking road traffic last month.

Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has asked Rahul to disclose if he had ever visited the family members of the 1984 riots.

Senior SAD leader and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK said that Rahul should tell the people why he had never tried to console or share the grief of even one of the thousands of Sikh families whose near and dear ones were killed in 1984.

Asking him with what face he was coming to Faridkot, Manjit GK asked "Isn't this mischievous on your part? Aren't you playing politics by trying to take political mileage out of a personal tragedy of two families even as you remained indifferent to the collective tragedy of around 30,000 victims of the 1984 genocide.”

(With PTI inputs)