The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will install a portrait of the assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in the central Sikh museum of the Golden Temple.
A senior SGPC official said on Monday: “On June 14, a big religious function is scheduled to take place at the Golden Temple. A portrait of Dilawar Singh will be unveiled in the Sikh museum of the Golden Temple.”
Suicide bomber Dilawar Singh had killed former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995. Dilawar was a Punjab police member who later joined the terror outfit Babbar Khalsa International.
Reacting sharply to the development, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, a former Punjab cabinet minister and the grandson of Beant Singh, said: “This is a highly unfortunate step by the SGPC. It will disseminate a wrong message to the young generation and can disturb the hard-earned peace of Punjab.”
“Moreover, in the Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple), a poster of a killer should never be installed,” he said.
Portraits of many other Sikh insurgents, including that of militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, are already on display at the Sikh museum. Around one lakh people visit the museum daily.
