CHANDIGARH, July 17 -- A special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firing and sacrilege cases in Punjab has summoned Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for questioning on Monday, according to two officials privy to the development in the politically-sensitive long-pending probe. Sukhbir, on his part, said he will cooperate with the SIT while alleging that the case was being used for political purposes rather than justice. At the centre of the case is the police action in Behbal Kalan village in Faridkot district on October 14, 2015, in which two Sikh youth who were part of a large crowd protesting against the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib were killed when the police opened fire to disperse the demonstrators blocking a key road in central Punjab. A coalition of Shiromani Akal Dal- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was in power at the time of a sacrilege incident in Bargari village of Faridkot district that triggered a wave of angry protests. The SIT is also probing the sequence of events leading to the Behbal Kalan incident. The SIT summons to Sukhbir assume significance in the wake of renewed momentum in the probe that has dogged the Akali leader since his party lost power in 2017. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has made no secret of his plans to turn the heat on Sukhbir on the issue ahead of the state assembly elections due early next year. On Wednesday, addressing a public rally in Mukerian, he targeted Sukhbir, saying that those who orchestrated or overlooked the sacrilege incidents will not be pardoned. Last week, the SIT headed by deputy inspector general (DIG) Bathinda Harjit Singh had questioned BJP leader and former Union minister Vijay Sampla for three hours in Chandigarh. In his deposition before the SIT, Sampla, who was heading the Punjab unit of BJP in 2015, reportedly denied signing a joint memorandum to the then Punjab governor in January 2018 along with Sukhbir seeking a judicial probe into the sacrilege and police firing incidents. Sampla is also learnt to have sought certified copies of the documents shown to him by the SIT, questioning their authenticity. After the summons to Sukhbir, Sampla, in a statement, refuted SIT claims terming them false, baseless and a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. Earlier, the SIT had quizzed former SAD MLA Mantar Singh Brar and also recorded the statement of former Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, who claimed that Sukhbir in his statement in 2024 to the Sikh clergy at the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, had publicly confessed his mistakes during the SAD-BJP rule between 2007 and 2017. One of officials quoted above said that former SAD MLA Mantar Singh Brar told investigators that he had spoken to the then chief minister, home minister and the director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini before the police action against the protesters. Badal's officer on special duty (OSD) reportedly confirmed to the SIT that directions to clear the protesters were issued during the night before the firing, said the official....