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Vikramaditya responds to SFJ threats with ‘Tiranga Yatra’
Amid threat by banned outfit SFJ president Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to hoist the Khalistan flag in Shimla, Vikramaditya Singh took out a Tiranga Yatra in the state capital on Tuesday
Amid threat by banned outfit Sikhs for Justice’s (SFJ) president Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to hoist the Khalistan flag in Shimla, Vikramaditya Singh, the Shimla (Rural) legislator and son of former chief minister Virbahdra Singh, took out a Tiranga Yatra in the state capital on Tuesday for unity and national integrity.
Pannun in a press statement, messages and calls to the prominent people had announced a $50,000 award for hoisting the Khalistan flag on April 29 in Shimla in retaliation to controversy after some Sikh devotees had accused the state police of harassing them while going to religious places.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had said that those carrying religious flags were not stopped but only ones who had installed banned Khalistan flags on their vehicles.
The 3-km Tiranga Yatra with a 1,000-ft Tricolour started from the Himachal Pradesh assembly to the Ridge.
“We have been receiving international calls from Canada and the US on the name of a person, a separatist, who had announced to hoist the flag of Khalistan in Shimla,” said Vikramaditya Singh.
He said the Tiranga Yatra was not a Congress event but organised by the Citizens of Shimla and Himachal Pradesh.
“I want to make it clear to those separatist forces that we may be divided by political ideology but when it comes to the nation, we are all united and stand by the government and our chief minister,” he said.
He said it is always the Tricolour that will be and can be hoisted in Himachal Pradesh.
“If those people continue with their threat calls, we will start a Tiranga Yatra in every district and every corner of the state,” he said.
He also urged the state government and the chief minister to take strict action against the separatist people.
