Videos Show Pro-Khalistan Sloganeering At Deep Sidhu Cremation

Several video clips have emerged on social media platforms and messenger apps purported to be during the cremation of late actor Deep Sidhu, showing a group of Sikhs shouting pro-Khalistan slogans along with ‘Long Live Deep Sidhu’ at the site.

Sidhu who died in a road accident on February 15 was cremated in Ludhiana on Wednesday evening after his body was handed over to his family after a police post-mortem.

The video is allegedly shot in Ludhiana’s Tharike village where a horde of Sikhs in saffron turbans are seen raising slogans “Saadi (hamari) majboori hai, Khalistan zaroori hai” (It is our requirement to get a separate homeland, Khalistan).

Many of them could be seen shouting in front of mobile cameras, ‘Banke rahega Khalistan’ (Khalistan is bound to come to form). The videos were being circulated on social media apps also demanding a fair probe into the death of the late actor.

Controversy theories began emerging as soon the news of Sidhu’s death became public. Many allegedly propogated that Sidhu was “bumped off” by security agencies who had used him to discredit the Farmers Protest while several felt that Sidhu was “eliminated” because he was going to spill the beans on the establishment about his role in the Red Fort vandalism on January 26 last year.

Police have however denied any such possibilities as baseless and said they had identified the truck driver who had hit Sidhu car. The police also disclosed that they had recovered a partially consumed bottle of liquor from the ill-fated car of Punjabi actor near Sonipat in Haryana.