Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: Hawara’s Father, Simranjit Mann Booked; 17 Arrested  

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: Four FIRs follow Chandigarh’s Independence Day standoff as Qaumi Insaaf Morcha marches on the Governor’s House demanding Hawara and Bandi Singhs’ release.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 17

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: SAD (Amritsar) president and former MP Simranjit Singh Mann and Jagtar Singh Hawara’s father Gurcharan Singh were among those booked and 17 others were arrested as four FIRs were registered across three Chandigarh police stations on Sunday, a day after a march by the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha to the Punjab Governor’s residence brought the city to a standstill; the protest had triggered a nearly two-hour standoff, multiple rounds of tear gas, and traffic chaos that spilled well beyond the protest site itself.

The 17 arrested face various charges, including violating the orders of the district magistrate, blocking the road and trying to break the police barricades.

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: The face-off

The trouble began around 2 pm on August 15, when large numbers of protesters converged on the barricaded roads leading toward Punjab Raj Bhawan in Sector 6, home to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria. Police had thrown up barbed wire and three layers of barricades to hold the line. Protesters tied ropes to tractors in an attempt to physically pull the barricades away, and stones were hurled at police personnel. For roughly ninety minutes, officers responded with repeated rounds of tear gas — drones were deployed to drop shells directly onto the crowd, a tactic not typically seen in Chandigarh’s protest-management playbook.

The scale of what protesters were carrying is what elevated this beyond a routine scuffle: posters, swords, axes and spears made it to the police lines, raising real questions about how such weapons got as far as they did against three layers of barricading meant to prevent exactly this.

Four FIRs, four different stories

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: The principal FIR, registered at Sector 36 police station, invokes the Arms Act, rioting provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. It covers the assembly at the Sector 51/52 dividing road, where protesters allegedly tried to break through barricades to enter the city while raising slogans for the release of Sikh prisoners. Among those named: Bapu Gurcharan Singh —Hawara’s spiritual father, activists Bhana Sidhu, Lakha Sidhana, Gurdeep Bathinda, and farmer leader Sukhjinder Singh Khosa.

Two separate FIRs were registered at Sector 3 police station. One names the son of former MP Simranjit Singh Mann and seven others, arrested near the Governor’s residence, under BNS Section 223 for disobeying a public servant’s order. The other names Mann himself, along with three others, on similar charges — and includes the most unusual detail of the day: Mann allegedly disguised himself as a patient, wrapped in bandages, and rode in an ambulance in an attempt to gain passage to the Governor’s House.

A fourth FIR, filed at Sector 26 police station, covers nine people arrested near the Sector 7/8 dividing road, from whom police seized four swords. This too invokes the Arms Act alongside provisions on disobeying a lawfully promulgated order.

Why Hawara is central to this

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: The Morcha’s march wasn’t a one-off — it’s an extension of a sit-in that has run at the Chandigarh-Mohali border for over three years, demanding the release of long-serving Sikh prisoners collectively referred to as Bandi Singhs, among them Balwant Singh Rajoana and Devinderpal Singh Bhullar. But Jagtar Singh Hawara — serving a life term for the 1995 assassination of then-Punjab CM Beant Singh — has become the movement’s most prominent face this year, partly because of his mother.

Court records describe his mother, Narinder Kaur, around 83 years old, as suffering a serious and rapidly deteriorating neurological condition. His father passed away years ago. It’s this — a dying mother’s wish to see her son — that the Morcha has repeatedly cited as its most urgent, humanitarian demand, distinct from the broader political ask for all Bandi Singhs’ release. On the eve of Saturday’s march, Hawara himself released a video message from jail appealing to protesters to keep the demonstration peaceful.

The Morcha has since called for a Punjab Bandh on August 21, escalating the demand for release of Bandi Singhs including Hawara, Rajoana and Bhullar.

A city on lockdown

Qaumi Insaaf Morcha Protest: Traffic through Chandigarh was paralysed through the day. Borders with Mohali, Zirakpur and New Chandigarh were sealed entirely; roads from the ISBT-43 stretch northward toward Sector 6 were barricaded. Every boundary point with Mohali — from the Max Hospital road near Sector 56 to the Sector 48/49 dividing road — was shut, as was Vikas Marg heading north.

Residents flooded social media with complaints; ambulances, unrelated to the protest, were reported stuck in the resulting gridlock.

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