Jammu: A Sikh activist, who tried to hoist the tricolour atop the PDP office here during a protest against remarks by its chief Mehbooba Mufti on the flag, was detained by police on Tuesday, officials said.
On October 24, Amandeep Singh had hoisted the national flag on the boundary wall near the main entrance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) office and a day later, he along with some youths attempted to hoist it on the party’s headquarters, but were stopped by police.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jammu, Sridhar Patil confirmed Singh’s detention.
He has been detained under some other case and not for disturbance to law and order, the officer said.
Police, however, did not give details of the charges against the Sikh activist.
Singh has been either booked for violation of COVID-19 protocols and the Disaster Management Act or for trespass, sources said.
While the activist was being shifted in a vehicle, he told reporters that he is being “arrested” by police under pressure from the PDP.
Led by the station house officer of Gandhinagar, a police team raided Singh’s house at Sanjay Nagar and took him away in the presence of journalists.
Singh’s father, who rushed to the Gandhinagar police station following the police action, told reporters that he was not being allowed to meet his son.
“They are not allowing me to meet my son. I have the right to know under which case they have booked my son. This is the worst state of rule in which patriots and nationalists unfurling the tricolour are being sent to jail,” his father said.
Singh’s wife alleged that “this is the treatment given to nationalist and patriotic people in Jammu.”
“Is this a lesson for being a nationalist and hoisting the national flag?” she asked.
Protests were staged outside the PDP officer last month after Mehbooba, a former chief minister, said she is not interested in contesting elections or holding the tricolour till the constitutional changes enforced on August 05 last year are rolled back.
She had said she would hold the national flag only when the separate flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir is restored.
The Centre on August 05 last year had abrogated the erstwhile state’s special status and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh
Following the PDP chief’s statements, the BJP had accused her of making “seditious remarks” and had demanded her arrest.
