NEW DELHI: The AAP on Thursday alleged that the BJP was behind the clashes between two groups in Punjab's Patiala district, claiming that the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Bhagwant Mann government will soon come up with a "big revelation" in this connection.
Evidences of the roles played by the BJP and its leaders in the Patiala violence have started coming out and the SIT is looking into "all those things", Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj told a press conference here.
"Sometime back, we said how the BJP was trying to disturb the country's atmosphere by playing an active role in the riots that took place in various states from Ram Navami to Hanuman Jayanti," Bharadwaj said.
"And now the proof of the role played by the BJP and its leaders in the clash that took place between two different religious communities in Patiala has started coming out...We have come to know many things about it," he said.
"The SIT, set up by the Bhagwant Mann government, is probing into all those things and it will come up with a big revelation in this connection very soon," the spokesperson said.
A clash broke out between two groups on April 29 over an "anti-Khalistan" march outside the Kali Mata temple in Patiala.
The march was taken out by members of an outfit that calls itself Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray).
Some Sikh activists, including Nihangs, took out another march against the Sena event.
Near the Kali Mata temple, the two groups came face to face and hurled stones at each other.
Police had to fire in the air to bring the situation under control.
The AAP spokesperson claimed that the evidence available on the "cyberspace internet and elsewhere" shows that both the groups -- those who instigated the mob while remaining on the side of Sikhs' group and those who instigated the mob while remaining on the side of Hindus' group -- had direct links with the BJP.
While the "mastermind" of the Patiala violence, Barjinder Singh Parwana, who was on the side of Sikhs' group and gave provocative speeches before the clash, was "directly linked" to the BJP and its leaders, Varun Jindal, who participated in the violence from the side of the Hindus' group, was the vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP's youth wing, Bharadwaj alleged.
"His (Parwana's) speeches in support of the violence are available on internet and elsewhere. He is an extremist leader. And BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa openly advocated for Parwana. His video and his statements are also available on the internet for anybody to see," he said.
"Hence, BJP was behind the violence," the AAP leader said.
Bharadwaj said that Chief Minister Mann has set up "two SITs with one investigating the role of "various political parties and people who were involved in the Patiala violence and the other basically looking into the involvement or negligence of the government officials, especially police officers, who were responsible for maintaining peace in the area.
They (SITs) will soon submit charge sheet against the accused in court, he added.