New Delhi: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) slammed fugitive Amritpal Singh over his ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ (grand assembly) call and said it was only the prerogative of the Akal Takht jathedar to give a call for the congregation after discussions with all the Sikh bodies.
“It was an expression from the heart of a Sikh which Amritpal communicated and any other Sikh can express the same too, but Sarbat Khalsa is a very big event and if required, it is the prerogative of jathedar of Akal Takht only to announce a Sarbat Khalsa, that too, after the consultation with all the Sikh organizations,” said Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal.
The SGPC statement comes after an unverified audio clip of radical preacher Amritpal Singh went viral on the social media where he debunked the speculation of him negotiating his surrender and nudged the Akal Takht to summon a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ congregation.
"I have urged the jathedar to call the Sarbat Khalsa. Call the Sarbat Khalsa, and prove that you are the jathedar,” he said in the clip.
“If we are going to play politics even today, doing the same things we used to do earlier, then what’s the point of being a jathedar in the future. We should understand that today is the time for the entire community to come together,” he said as he called for Sikh unity.
“I am not scared and I don’t fear going to jail, or torture in police custody. Let them do whatever they want," he added.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has informed the Akal Takht that almost all the people that were taken into custody during the crackdown against Amritpal Singh and his ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit have now been released.
Notably, Amritpal Singh continues to remain untraceable since March 18, when he gave the slip to a police dragnet in Jalandhar, switching cars and changing appearances.