Party president and former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra said these persons had taken to violence in protest against the Army attack on the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs in the Golden Temple complex in 1984, which hurt the religious feelings of the Sikhs.

He said Sikhs all over the country had extended support to the BJP in the hope that the party, after coming to power, would soothe the feelings of the Sikhs, but nothing had been done so far. The continued silence of the BJP government only means that the party is no different from the Congress. It would expose the anti-minority secret agenda of the BJP. He said the BJP should prove it is different from the Congress by respecting the cultural diversity.

Tohra said these persons were languishing in jails for more than 10 years, many of them even without trials. It was also unprecedented that while all the punishments should start simultaneously, in these cases one jail term was starting after the other.

He attacked Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for what he described as the criminal negligence on this issue and backtracking from the poll promise of getting these youth released.

He appealed to various political parties and human rights organisations to put pressure for their release as a true tribute to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who sacrificed his rights for human rights.