India, April 24 -- Activist Gurjeet Singh Khalsa, 43, who had been protesting atop a 400-foot BSNL tower in Samana town of Patiala district for the past 560 days, descended safely on Friday morning. A former army sepoy and dairy farmer, Khalsa had climbed the structure on October 12, 2024, to demand stricter punishments for incidents of beadbi (sacrilege) involving Guru Granth Sahib.

The breakthrough follows the Punjab government's official notification of the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026. The new legislation, which fulfilled Khalsa's core demand, proposes a minimum of seven years' imprisonment, extendable to life for criminal conspiracies intended to disrupt communal harmony, along with fines of up to Rs...