‘Waris Punjab De’ Show of Strength & INC Woes Continue

August

2026

A protest march by thousands of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De, WPD) leaders, workers and supporters, demanding the release of Khadoor Sahib Member of Parliament Amritpal Singh and Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners) ended in a clash with police at the Chandigarh-Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar) border on 29 Jul. The demonstrators, joined by members of other Sikh organizations, attempted to march towards the residences of Panjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Police were deployed in large numbers near Burail Jail, where barricades were erected to prevent the march from entering Chandigarh. The protesters breached the barricades and security police used water cannons to stop them. The protesters then climbed the water cannon and damaged its nozzle. The march was called off after WPD submitted a memorandum to the Officer on Special Duty to the Panjab CM, Navraj Singh Brar. The Chandigarh Police has lodged a First Information Report against Member of Legislative Assembly and WPD leader Manpreet Singh Ayali and 14 others. Amritpal’s father and senior WPD leader Tarsem Singh called the FIR politically motivated. He said the demand for the release of Bandi Singhs had been pending for years and recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the Sikh community that the issue would be addressed. He also questioned the credibility of the police because the FIR included the name of former Panjab minister late Ajaib Singh Mukmailpur. This, he said, was a hurried attempt to weaken public support for the movement. While WPD is gaining popularity in north Panjab, the large support for the protest march in Chandigarh shows WPD might now be inching towards occupying the space Shiromani Akali Dal once occupied in Panjab. Meanwhile, the rivalry between senior Indian National Congress (INC) leaders in Panjab, supporters of INC state unit president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, led to a clash on 1 Jul at a party meeting in Sangrur. The groups nearly came to blows in the presence of Bhupesh Baghel, All India Congress Committee General Secretary in-charge for Panjab. Channi also skipped Parliament when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi addressed the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) and instead led a protest in Panjab over the alleged paper leak issue. The posters at the march showed only Channi, without even the INC logo or any prominent party face (earlier coverage).