Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said those who took the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib to a police station as a shield cannot be called the 'waris' (heir) of Punjab.
His remarks came days after self-styled Sikh preacher and Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into a police station in Ajnala on the outskirts of the Amritsar city on Thursday, extracting an assurance from the police that his aide and kidnapping case accused Lovepreet Singh would be released.
Amritpal, who heads an organisation called 'Waris Punjab De', and his supporters had brought a vehicle carrying a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib for holding "amrit sanchar" (a Sikh ceremony) at the police station.
"Those who take the Guru Granth Sahib to police stations as a shield cannot be called 'waris' of Punjab and Punjabiyat in any way," Mr Mann said in a tweet in Punjabi.
Punjab Police had said on Friday that the demonstrators had used the holy Guru Granth Sahib as a shield and attacked police personnel in a cowardly manner, leaving six of them injured.
Lovepreet Singh walked out of jail on Friday.
Dubai-returned Amritpal Singh was last year anointed head of 'Waris Punjab De', which was founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu who died in a road accident in February last year. The event was held at Moga's Rode, the native village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)