Punjab Govt Restores Security Cover of 424 VVIPs Days After Moose Wala Murder

Punjab Police had said that the security personnel were “being withdrawn on a purely temporary basis in connection with an emergent law and order duty”.

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The Punjab government restored the security covers of 424 VVIPs on Tuesday that were removed last month. Last week, the Punjab government informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the security was scaled down temporarily and would be restored by June 7. Prior to that, the Punjab government had reduced the security cover of 424 people including ministers, MLAs, and the singer Sidhu Moose Wala who was murdered last month. 

Punjab’s senior deputy advocate general Gaurav Dhuriwala told the High Court about this after a petition of former deputy chief minister O P Soni against the withdrawal of his security came up for a hearing in the court of Justice Raj Mohan Singh, news agency PTI had reported. 

The Punjab government had curtailed the security cover in the wake of “Ghallughara week” and the anniversary of Operation Bluestar, which was carried out by the Army to flush out militants from the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.

At that time, the Punjab Police had said that the security personnel were “being withdrawn on a purely temporary basis in connection with an emergent law and order duty”.

A day after the government’s decision, Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead by unidentified men in the state’s Mansa district. Due to the brutal murder, the Punjab government received flak from the opposition who blamed it on reduced security. So far, eight people have been arrested in Moose Wala’s murder case. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Congress MP Ravneet Bittu claimed that he received a threat call saying that he would get the same fate as Moose Wala, PTI reported.