A day after the clash in Ajnala, a local court ordered his aide Lovepreet’s release on the basis of a police application

Radical preacher Amritpal Singh on Tuesday dubbed the “restraint” shown by the Punjab Police during the Ajnala clashes as “false propaganda”, asking if it respects the Guru Granth Sahib why did it use lathis and erect barricades against his supporters.

His supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the Ajnala police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city last week, extracting an assurance from the police that a kidnapping case Lovepreet Singh accused will be released.

Police later said they exercised restraint because the protesters were bringing a copy of the scripture in a palanquin as they advanced towards the police station.

“See the video. If they had so much respect, then what was the need to use ‘lathis’?,” Amritpal Singh, who is seen as a Khalistan sympathiser, said at a religious event in Tarn Taran.

“If there was so much respect, there should have been a showering of flowers,” he added.