Bargari Insaaf Morcha: a 192-day sit-in for justice over the 2015 beadbi and the Behbal Kalan firing

Who: Dhian Singh Mand, whom the 2015 Sarbat Khalsa named to act as Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib (The Tribune calls him the "parallel" jathedar); Baljit Singh Daduwal, named for Takht Sri Damdama Sahib; Simranjit Singh Mann of the Akali Dal (Amritsar); Buta Singh Ransih; residents of Bargari, Behbal Kalan, Niamiwala and Sarawan; and two Congress ministers, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, for the state government.

What: From June 1, 2018 protesters sat at the grain procurement centre in Bargari, Faridkot, where torn pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib were found in October 2015. The Tribune listed three demands: the arrest of those accused in the sacrilege cases, action against the police officers who fired on peaceful protesters at Behbal Kalan, and the release, or transfer to Punjab, of Sikh prisoners held elsewhere.

On December 9, after 192 days, the two ministers came to Bargari and announced the state's response. It included cancelling Section 295-A cases against Sikhs filed on complaints by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda, renaming Bargari "Bargari Sahib", compensation for those hurt in the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firings, a claim that all 23 accused in the sacrilege cases had been arrested, opposing in court a stay on the arrest of four police officers, a Bill on Sikh prisoners, and a Special Investigation Team probing the role of the Badals. Mand then wound up the morcha, saying he had reached no understanding with the government and that this was a new phase of the struggle. The Tribune said the gathering seemed unimpressed and some people walked away.

Where: Bargari, Faridkot district. The demands also concerned Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, where police fired in October 2015.

Why it mattered: Within days the leaders were divided. Daduwal said Mand should have sought consensus, "group decision-making, not the decision by one individual". Ransih said the morcha was ended at its peak, when the government was under heavy pressure. Residents of the villages tied to the 2015 events largely disagreed with the decision, and the son of a man killed at Behbal Kalan hoped the agitation would resume with a new strategy. In October 2019 Mann said the call-off had been unanimous and that the government had taken a "half-hearted" approach to punishing the guilty, while leaders at Bargari had criticised the decision the day before.