Sedition case against Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan Army Chief

A complaint of sedition has been filed against Congress leader and Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for hugging Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the swearing-in ceremony of his “friend” Imran Khan as Pakistan Prime Minister held in Islamabad on Saturday.

The complaint against Sidhu for hugging the Pak Army Chief was filed by a lawyer in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.

The cricketer-turned-politician had gone to Pakistan to attend the oath taking ceremony of his friend Imran Khan, also a former cricketer, as new Pakistan Prime Minister. During the ceremony, Sidhu courted controversy by hugging General Bajwa. He was also criticised for sitting next to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) President Masoor Khan at the ceremony.

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After returning to India on Sunday, Sidhu justified his hug and said, “If someone (Bajwa) comes to me and says that we belong to the same culture and we’ll open Kartarpur border on Guru Nanak Dev’s 550th Prakash Parv, what else I could do?”

However, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticised Sidhu, a minister in his cabinet, for hugging Pakistan Army chief amid the tensed border situation.

"Every day, our jawans are getting martyred. To hug their army chief, I am against this. The fact is that the man should understand that our soldiers are being killed every day," Singh said.

Hitting out at Sidhu, the BJP termed his visit to Pakistan and hug to the country's Army Chief as "shameful". The Congress party, however, defended Sidhu and said that he went to Pakistan as a friend of Imran Khan and not as a Punjab Minister or a Congress worker.

Also Read | Navjot Singh Sidhu shares dais with President of PoK at Imran Khan’s swearing-in

“Navjot Singh Sidhu did not go to Pakistan as a Punjab Minister or a Congress worker. He went there as a friend. Whatever explanation he had to give he has given & whatever the government had to say has been said by Capt. Amarinder Singh,” ANI quoted Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill as saying.