Amritpal Singh On The Run / Massive Crackdown /
Security Beefed Up / RAF Stages Flag march / High Alert In Punjab

Massive hunt is on to nab Amritpal Singh, the Khalistan sympathizer and radical Sikh preacher who had been trying to spread the message of terrorist Bhindranwale among the youths of Punjab and infuse Sikh fundamentalism. On Saturday, the Punjab state government had launched a major crackdown against Singh. Police have arrested 78 members of Waris Punjab De (WPD), the radical outfit launched by Amritpa Singh. Several criminal cases have been slapped against Singh. The police suspects Amritpal Singh has been maintaining close links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and terrorist groups based in foreign countries.

Amritpal Singh, managed to escape police’s dragnet on a motorcycle when the special team of the state police, comprising personnel from seven districts, had followed the Khalistani leader’s convoy on its way to the Shahkot tehsil in Jalandhar. Following this incident, security has been beefed up across the state. Singh has been declared a fugitive. Internet connection and SMS services have been suspended after his aides shared some videos on social media claiming that policemen were chasing them, and urged his supporters to gather at Shahkot. The police said it has launched a “massive state-wide cordon and search operations (CASO)” in the state against elements of the ‘Waris Punjab De’.

The Punjab police have already arrested six to seven gunmen of Amritpal Singh. It has also nabbed 78 members of the radical outfit. Apart from this, the police conducted massive raids across the state and have seized one .315 bore rifle, seven 12 bore rifles, one revolver, and 373 live cartridges of different caliber. Daljeet Singh Kalsi, a close aide of Amritpal Singh who handles his finance, has also been arrested from Gurgaon in Haryana. Amritpal Singh has been booked under Arm’s Act.

It’s not clear what charges have been framed against WPD chief Amritpal Singh or in which case he is wanted. However, its is not ruled out that the massive crackdown may be in connection with incident that took place in the Ajnala Police Station on the outskirts of the Amritsar city. Amritpal alongwith his supporters had flaunted nacked swords and guns, broke through barricades. Singh and his gang had clashed with the police. six policemen including a Superintendent of Police rank officer had suffered injuries. The incident had attracted severe criticism for the Mann led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state being accused of kowtowing to extremists.

Four of Amritpal Singh’s aides have been flown from Punjab to Dibrugarh in Assam, and kept in the Central Jail. The Punjab police is expected to hold a Press conference and divulge details.

However, the aides of Amritpal Singh, are reluctant to accept that their leader had been on the run and maintain that he is in the custody of the police and the police has been spreading a “deliberate” wrong message to mislead the Sikhs. One of the aide said, their leader has nothing to hide or run from as he had been saying and doing everything in the interest of the Sikh religion.

Rise of Amritpal Singh at a glance:

Amritpal Singh is the self-styled chief of the separatist Khalistani pressure group – ‘Waris Punjab De’

The radical leader hails from Jallupur village in Punjab’s Amritsar.

Till February 2022, he lived a normal life who was greatly influenced by the Western lifestyle and did not even wear a turban.

Transformation came in his life after returning from Dubai when he was appointed the head of WPD, founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu after he was denied a stage by the protesting farmers’ unions. Sidhu had died in a road accident in February last year.

Things changed for Amritpal Singh, who decided to take the void left by Sidhu’s death and declared himself the new chief of Waris De Punjab. His family initially objected to Amritpal Singh’s takeover of the organisation.

Since then Amritpal Singh has directly challenging the administration flouting all the protocols. The man who calls himself a Khalistani sympathizer and a staunch supporter of terrorist Bhindranwale had been openly promoting his separatist agenda.

However, the prima facie reports reveal that Amritpal Singh has already fled outside India, in all probability, Amritpal Singh and three others including his uncle have fled to Nepalmand from there may be to some other country.