The senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leadership on Friday said the party would unitedly fight the conspiracy hatched by the Congress in league with radical groups to belittle the contribution of SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal towards the Sikh panth as well as Punjab.

The Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh Commission report on the 2015 sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent firing in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, has indicted the former Punjab chief minister and the ruling Congress is calling for action against Badal in the matter.

Terming the above as “attempts to tarnish the image of the longest serving legislator and five times chief minister,” senior most SAD leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Jathedar Tota Singh and Sewa Singh Sekhwan said the Congress party was targeting the Sikh panth (religion).

In a joint statement, they said the Congress was trying to divide the community as per its old policy of divide and rule by leading a malicious and mischievous campaign against former CM Badal.

The senior leaders said the biased and politicised Ranjit Singh Commission, which had been rejected by the SAD, had failed to indict Badal despite its best attempts. They said the retired judge had noted down in his report that the state police informed him that Badal had given directions that the situation post sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and resultant protests be handled with sensitivity and that no one responsible for the sacrilege should be spared.

“We want to put on record that the Kotkapura dharna was lifted peacefully, but there was a most unfortunate incident later at the Behbal Kalan village in which two youth lost their precious lives. In this case ten police officers were named in the FIR by the SAD-BJP government, but now six police officers have been let off including those related to Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) leaders,” Dhindsa and Bhundur said.

Jathdar Tota Singh and Sewa Singh Sekhwan also condemned the Congress party for hatching a criminal conspiracy along with radical groups as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to attack SAD leaders through orchestrated protests.

Dhindsa noted that the Congress government had also debunked the Ranjit Commission report which had recommended that the probe in the case should be handed over to the CBI, by deciding to hand over the case to the state police. He said as far as the SAD was concerned it stood by its stand to get all cases of sacrilege probed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.