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Amritpal Singh asked Akal Takht to call the "Sarbat Khalsa" meeting. (File) Punjab police canceled the licenses for all policemen in the state until April 14 after radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh called a gathering of Sikhs later this month, the sources said. Amritpal, who has evaded arrest since his supporters stormed a police station after the arrest of one of his aides, has called on the heads of the top Sikh body, Akal Takht, to convene the "Sarbat Khalsa" meeting in Punjab's Bathinda. on this occasion. of Baisakhi on April 14.
Until then, the licenses of all listed and unpublished officers have been cancelled, the Punjab DGP said in a message to officers, the sources said. All previously sanctioned leaves are canceled and bosses have been asked not to authorize more leaves until April 14.
The separatists' call to the congregation came in two video messages that emerged last month. He also asked the jathedars (Akal Takht leaders) to make a religious procession from Akal Takht in Amritsar to Damdama Sahib in Bathinda before the meeting at Baisakhi.
Only the head of Akal Takht can decide whether or not to call such a congregation after consulting with Sikh scholars and intellectuals, senior gurdwara committee Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (SGPC) said following Amritpal's request.
"It is the personal wish of Amritpal Singh. It is the sole prerogative of the Akal Takht jathedar to call or not to call a 'Sarbat Khalsa'. The jathedar would see what needs to be done in the prevailing circumstances," the SGPC general secretary said. Gurcharan. Singh Grewal told the PTI news agency.
"Sarbat Khalsa" congregations have only been convened on two other occasions, in 2015 and 1986. The last was on February 16, 1986.