SGPC to install portrait of former CM Beant Singh's assassin at Golden Temple museum

Amritsar, Jun 13 (PTI) The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee will install a portrait of the assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in the central Sikh museum of the Golden Temple.

Around one lakh people visit the museum daily.

A senior SGPC official said on Monday, "On June 14, a big religious function is scheduled to take place in the Golden Temple complex. 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 Singh was a Punjab Police personnel who had 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 of 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 militants, 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.