On the morning of April 23, 6.45 a.m., Amrit Pal Singh, a propagator of the Khalistani movement and the head of Waris Punjab De was arrested by the Punjab police under the NSA(National Securities Act) act outside a gurudwara in Rode village in the Moga district of Punjab. The village is the native place of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the leading figure of the Khalistani movement back in the 1980s. According to the reports, Amrit Pal was on the run since 18th March and was finally arrested by the Punjab Police after 37 days of continuous manhunt. Amrit Pal, along with 8 of his aids have been sent to Dibrugarh jail in Assam.
Who is Amrit Pal Singh?
Amrit Pal Singh, is a follower of Khalistani movement militant Jarnail Singh Bhrindawale, a leader who fuelled the separatist movement of Punjab to establish its own sovereign state called Khalistan. The increased dread of the Khalistanis later led to the killing of Bhrindanwale by the Indian army in Operation Blue Star. Amrit Pal Singh, who was a believer in the same ideology was now dubbed Bhrindanwale 2.0. During his arrest, Bhrindanwale was seen wearing the same turban and robe as Bhrindanwale did. A self-styled sikh preacher, Amrit Pal started a campaign to refrain youth from drugs, adopt a traditionalist form of Sikhism, and asked for the formation of an independent Khalistan.
What is Waris Punjab De?
Deep Sidhu, an actor-turned-activist founded the Waris Punjab De organization to allegedly propagate the rights of Punjab. This was the time when the farmer’s protest in Punjab was on the rise. Amrit Pal was a member of this organization from Dubai. After the accident and death of Sidhu, Amrit Pal came to the forefront and came in contact with Pakistan’s Inter Intelligence Services (ISI) and was in no time appointed as the leader of the Waris Pubnjab De on September 22, his appointment still remains controversial. Deep Sidhu’s brother Mandeep Singh Sidhu, a Ludhiana-based advocate commented, “Amritpal is talking about creating unrest in Punjab. He is befooling people using my brother’s and Khalistan’s name. My brother was not a separatist,” Mandeep added.
Crimes of Amrit Pal Singh
Amrit Pal was trying to promote ‘gun culture’ by urging the youth to fight for freedom. According to a news source, Amrit Pal was using de-addiction centres to stockpile weapons illegally sourced from Pakistan. He has charges of giving fuel to communal tensions in Punjab. A total of 78 people have been arrested so far and further investigations are underway, according to some officials.
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