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21-03-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: Police in India’s Punjab are searching for a Sikh separatist leader who has been on the run since Saturday.
Mobile internet is suspended across the state and more than 100 of Amritpal Singh’s supporters have been detained but despite numerous roadblocks and a dramatic chase that was streamed live, they have not caught the self-styled preacher whose whereabouts are unclear.
His calls for a separate homeland for Sikhs have revived memories of a 1980s insurgency in which thousands died.
He claims to draw inspiration from Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a preacher accused by the Indian government of leading an armed insurgency for a separate Sikh homeland Khalistan in the 1980s. Bhindranwale was killed in the Indian army’s controversial Operation Blue Star in 1984.
Addressing a news conference on Monday, Punjab’s Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said five of the preacher’s associates had been arrested and charged under the tough National Security Act.
He said a number of weapons and vehicles used by the separatists had been recovered, including a Mercedes that Amritpal Singh had used to get away from police on Saturday.
The police crackdown comes weeks after Singh’s supporters stormed a police station, demanding the release of an aide who had been arrested.
On Saturday, police declared Singh, who is 30, “a fugitive” and launched a state-wide search for him. Traffic blockades were set up across the state to check vehicles.
Local media reported that Singh travelled in a cavalcade and dodged the police near the Shahkot-Mehatpur area in Jalandhar district after a dramatic chase.
The chase through villages was live-streamed by some of his associates, the Times of India newspaper reported, adding that they also uploaded videos on social media urging supporters to gather near Jalandhar.
One of the videos showed the preacher’s convoy being stopped at a check post near Jalandhar and then being followed by several police vehicles.
Singh’s uncle Harjit Singh, who was part of the convoy and surrendered to the police on Sunday night, told the Indian Express newspaper that his nephew had been in the car with him as they were heading to Moga district in Punjab.
He said that they were alerted about a “heavy deployment of armed forces” and so they changed route and Singh switched to another car.
On Sunday, a top police official told ANI news agency that the preacher had managed to escape after “he had been chased for 20-25km (12-15 miles)”.
Also on Sunday, people carrying banners that said “Khalistan” protested outside the Indian High Commission in London. Videos showed a man detaching the Indian flag from the balcony of the building.
Angry Indian officials summoned the UK’s deputy high commissioner in Delhi and lodged a strong protest.
The police have marched through the streets in several areas of Punjab to “instil confidence in public” and to urge them to maintain law and order in the state.
Thousands of policemen in Punjab are searching for Amritpal Singh, a controversial self-styled preacher whose incendiary views and sudden rise to fame have sparked a political crisis in the north Indian state.
The police have declared Singh a “fugitive” after he escaped during a dramatic car chase in Jalandhar district on Saturday. The 30-year-old is still absconding.
The chain of events has once again propelled Singh who says he supports the Khalistan movement for a separate Sikh homeland to national attention.
Last month, violence broke out in Punjab after hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station, demanding the release of an arrested aide.
The mob of angry young men – many holding guns and swords broke down barricades and only left the scene after getting an assurance that the aide would be released. Police officials later claimed that they had been unable to stop the crowd as they were carrying a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book venerated by Sikhs as a shield.
