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Chohan will be prosecuted for past crimes: Dhindsa

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a senior politician of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), clarified that there was no question of letting Sikh separatist Jagjit Singh Chohan go scot-free for offences committed earlier.

Dhindsa told rediff.com that the Akali Dal government in Punjab has no intention of going soft on former militants. "I have spoken to the chief minister, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal, on this issue and he has made it clear that if there were cases against Jagjit Singh Chohan the law would take its own course. The same rule will apply to other former militants wanting to join the mainstream."

Dhindsa denied that Akali Dal leader Sucha Singh Langah was encouraging extremists like Wassan Singh Zafarwal and Chohan to return to India. He said Zaffarwal was a relative of Langah and so the latter may have wanted him to come back. "But the Akali Dal is not encouraging former militants to come back," he clarified.

Dhindsa, however, said that at a time when the government is ready to talk to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, former militants of Punjab who want to return to the mainstream should be allowed to come back.

He claimed that Zaffarwal returned home because he had realised that Pakistan was using the Sikh militants for its own purposes. "If people like him want to come back we should not hold their past deeds against them," he said. "But at the same time they should be prosecuted for their crimes."

According to Dhindsa, efforts by him and Chief Minister Badal had brought down the number of blacklisted persons in the state from 1700 early this year to less than 250 now.

"The intelligence agencies have been from time to time reviewing the cases of people whose names figure in the blacklist and they keep reducing the numbers," he explained. There are now only 18 cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act pending in various courts in Punjab. All the others detained under the act, which has now lapsed, have been released. "There is no one in the Jodhpur jail now," he said. Jodhpur was where many of the Sikh extremists were incarcerated at the height of the militancy in Punjab.

Asked if the Akali Dal would admit people like Chohan, Dhindsa said there was no such proposal at the moment.

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