Badal, BJP offer to ex-Punjab militants

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, APRIL 5. The ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab seems to have altered its previous stance by easing its reservations over a possibility of the return of former terrorists into the national mainstream. The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, and the president of the BJP State unit, Mr. Brij Lal Rinwa, said the Government could consider if the ``other side'' made a proposal.

This was indicated by Mr. Badal while talking to the press after chairing a meeting of the party's working committee and district jathedars here today.

Asked about a possible ``surrender'' by one of the longest surviving militant leaders, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, Mr. Badal reiterated that there was immediate proposal to grant amnesty to militants, including those settled abroad. However, if a proposal was made by the ``other side'' it could be considered by the Union Home Ministry and the State Government, he added.

Talking over phone Mr. Rinwa told The Hindu that any terrorist could surrender and join the mainstream, after publicly acknowledging that he had adopted the wrong path. He said militant leaders like Zaffarwal, if desirous of joining the mainstream, should not indulge in camouflage and must own up to their wrong deeds, while society too must be prepared to accept them back.

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