The KAC activists had decided to hold a march from Bhai Rup, near Salabatpura village. The march will pass from several villages of Bathinda.

Reports say several members of KAC, including Bhai Mokham Singh and Kanwarpal Singh, have gone underground fearing arrest by the police.

Bittu’s aide Harinder Singh Norway has been put under house arrest after the latter declined to accompany the police on plea of ill health. In another major crackdown, the Bathinda Police have also rounded up 30 persons, prominent among them Baba Hardip Singh Mehraj, Labh Singh and Darshan Singh. Another senior leader of KAC, Jasbir Singh Rode, has also been arrested in Jalandhar.

Top police officials said that the arrests of KAC activists were being made as a precautionary measure.

SSP R.K. Jaiswal told ENS, “These are preventive arrests and have been made after orders from the top. Such arrests are being made all over the state to maintain law and order.”

Bathinda police chief Naunihal Singh said, “Our main objective is prevention and the first step is to reduce the number of people gathering for this march. After this we will deploy police at Salabatpura to see that the people who do gather for the march on February 10 do not create any kind of mischief.” Singh added, “Following the attack on the dera chief, the atmosphere is charged up and more so for the dera manager at Salabatpura, Zora Singh, who resides in Adampur village that falls en route this proposed march. Apart from this, some wedding celebrations at this village are also going on.

We have applications from some dera followers seeking protection.”

Meanwhile, Kanwarpal Singh Bittu, a senior member of the Khalsa Action Committee, said, “The police have raided homes of all our senior members. While some have been arrested, others have managed to flee. This crackdown is because of the Khalsa March that we had planned to undertake at Salabatpura. But we had no plans to enter the town and wanted to hold this mach on its periphery.” Talking about the further course of action after Bittu’s arrest, he said, “Our party members are meeting late today evening and only after that will we decide anything.”