Lashing out at Sukhbir Badal for his totally unwarranted and politically-motivated allegations against him on the Amritsar grenade attack incident, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday accused the SAD president of playing with the religious sentiments of the people for promoting vested interests.

Reacting sharply to Sukhbir’s “blatantly false and unsubstantiated” accusation that Capt Amarinder was responsible for the grenade attack, the Chief Minister said that the SAD chief, in his desperate bid to divert attention from the SIT probe against him in the Bargari sacrilege case, was resorting to cheap and petty politicking.

Pointing out that Bargari was the creation of the Badals-led SAD, Capt Amarinder said that his Government was trying to clean up the mess and the SIT formed by it was investigating the matter thoroughly.

“Clearly cornered by these investigations, Sukhbir was indulging in frivolous political games,” said the Chief Minister, lambasting the SAD president for his “thoughtless and frivolous” statements on a serious issue, which had the potential of once again plunging Punjab into the dark days of terrorism.

Capt Amarinder expressed shock at the repeated attempts of the Badals to exploit religion to divide the people of the State, unmindful of the devastating effects this could have in the long term.

“While the Government is going all out to fight radical and extremist elements, which are trying to destabilize the State at the behest of ISI-backed Khalistani and Kashmiri terrorist groups, the Akalis are indulging in politics over the serious issue,” he lamented.

He said that it wa s typical of the Badals to use religion to further their personal and political ambitions. “And this trait had assumed grave proportions since they were unceremoniously ousted from power by the people of Punjab, who had seen through their deceitful games and voted en masse against them,” he added.

Capt Amarinder also came down heavily on Sukhbir for targeting the Gandhi family and seeking to hold them responsible for the recent incidents involving terrorist forces in Punjab. “It is ridiculous to even contemplate that the Gandhis, who had been the worst victims of terrorism in the country, could think of promoting or encouraging radical forces in any way,” said the Chief Minister.

Sukhbir’s allegations against the Gandhis smacked of sheer desperation and frustration at the complete alienation of the Badals, not just at the hands of the people but also by senior Akali leaders, he added.

The Chief Minister warned Sukhbir against playing with fire by undermining the growing threat of revival of terrorism backed by cross-border forces. “This is not the time for any political party or leader to play politics over the issue but to join hands with the government in fighting the menace and protecting Punjab from the renewed threat of revival of terrorism,” he stressed.

SPEAKER CALL FOR RESTRAINT ON TERROR ATTACK

Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh on Tuesday urged all the political parties to exercise restraint on the issue of the Amritsar terror attack.

He appealed to all the political parties across the board to let the investigation agencies do their job.

“It is a serious matter and any attempt to make political capital out of this situation will not only be unfortunate but disastrous for the State,” he said.

Expressing displeasure over the way certain leaders of various political parties were trying to politicize the event, he said: “This is reflective of the overall decline and degradation in the political discourse that we have seen over past several years.”

“This is a fight we have to fight together against the enemies of the State and the country and there must not be any blame game against anyone”, Rana said, while hoping that the political leaders across the board will show their sagacity and realize the gravity of the situation.

The Speaker pointed out that Punjab was yet to heal the wounds of the dark era of terrorism of 1980s and 90s. “The scars are still there as we lost about 30,000 innocent lives to that dark era”, he observed, while adding that the disastrous economic situation the state was facing was the result of that era only.

He said that although the challenge was serious, yet it was not difficult to defeat the designs of those behind such incident. “Their aim is to sabotage the hard-earned peace and we must not do anything that will help our enemies in sabotaging our peace,” he said.

Rana said that Punjab has always been at the forefront to defend the nation against all the enemies and Punjabis have always laid down immense sacrifices for the same. “And we are faced with yet another challenge and we will face it successfully for which the need of the hour is unity and restraint”, he remarked.