Amritpal Singh urges Akal Takht head priest to call a meet on Baisakhi, makes no remarks on Khalistan. He has been on the run since a police crackdown on him and his outfit began on March 18.
Written by Kamaldeep Singh Brar
Amritsar | Updated: March 30, 2023
Amritpal Singh has been on the run since a police crackdown on him and his outfit began on March 18. (Screengrab)
ON A day the Punjab Police tightened security at two shrines amid reports that Waris Punjab De leader and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh, who has been on the run since March 18, was planning to surrender, he released a video statement on Wednesday in which he termed the crackdown on him as an “attack on the community” and sought to mobilise “Sikhs across the world” by calling for a “Sarbat Khalsa” (Assembly of Sikhs).
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Wearing a black turban and a shawl, Amritpal made no mention of Khalistan or a separate state, but urged Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to call a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ at the Takht Sri Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo, on Baisakhi (April 14).
Expressing gratitude to the “sangat” (community) at home and abroad for protesting against the crackdown on him and his outfit, he said: “It is an attack on the Sikh community. I was neither afraid of arrest earlier, nor am I now… I am in high spirits. Nobody could harm me. It is the grace of God.”
Seeking to find common ground with the Akal Takht, Amritpal raised the issue of the war of words between acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. While the Jathedar had issued a 24-hour ultimatum for release of those arrested during the crackdown, Mann had accused him of “provoking” people.
“Jathedar Sahib gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the government. But the government challenged the institution of the Akal Takht and derided it. The Jathedar must take a strict stand on this issue. I request the Akal Takht Jathedar to call ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ at Talwandi Sabo on this issue. I appeal to the Sikhs across the world and all outfits to participate in this and discuss all the issues faced by the community,” he said.
“We must break the fear created by the government in the minds of people by calling ‘Sarbat Khalsa’,” he said.
Trying to defend his escape, Amritpal said that if the government wanted to arrest him, it could have picked him up from his house. “I would have given up. But the way the government laid a cordon, it was God’s grace that I managed to escape,” he said, speaking in Punjabi.
He claimed that when the crackdown began, he thought police were trying to stop him from reaching Muktsar Sahib in Malwa. With mobile internet services suspended, he was cut off from what was happening, he claimed.
“Now I have seen some news about what happened. The Punjab government has crossed the limits of oppression. The manner in which Sikh youths have been thrown into jails, women and children have also not been spared… It is similar to what happened during the Beant Singh government,” he said.
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Pointing out that the National Security Act (NSA) had been invoked against him and others, he said it was unfair. “We are aware that we have to face this on the path we have been walking,” he said in an oblique reference to his separatist narrative.
Apart from this, the self-styled preacher, who has always been unapologetic about his demand for a separate state, did not mention the issue in his video statement. Instead, he said that it was a fight for the future of the youth of the state and for the existence of Punjab itself.
He concluded his video by saying, “my arrest is in the hands of God.”
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Meanwhile, in a statement on Wednesday, the Akal Takht secretariat said the state government had informed it that 360 people had been taken into preventive detention, and most of them had been released.
Security was tightened at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and Takht Sri Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo on Wednesday amid reports that Amritpal could surrender there.
On Tuesday night, following intelligence inputs that Amritpal had sneaked into Punjab, a police team chased an SUV which was later found abandoned near a gurdwara in Hoshiarpur. It is suspected that Amritpal was traveling in the SUV, a Toyota Innova, with his associates, including Papalpreet Singh.
Amritpal Singh: Rumours swirl in hunt for fugitive Indian preacher
GETTY IMAGESRumours are circulating in India about the whereabouts of a controversial self-styled Sikh preacher, more than 10 days after he went on the run.
A massive operation is under way to find Amritpal Singh, who is wanted in many cases including attempted murder.
His calls for an independent Sikh homeland have riled the authorities.
Reports say he has been seen in at least four Indian cities, including the capital Delhi, since evading arrest in Punjab state on 18 March.
Nepal put him on a surveillance list this week at India's request.
On Tuesday night, Punjab police searched houses in a village in Hoshiarpur district, triggering media speculation that he may still be in the state.
Earlier in the day, the state government had told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the police were "close to catching" Mr Singh.
The manhunt has dominated Indian headlines over the past fortnight as police swarm state borders, comb the streets and scour surveillance footage in search of the man whose radical views stoked fears of a renewed phase of violence in Punjab.
Mr Singh, who suddenly rose to national attention in February after his followers stormed a police station, says he supports Khalistan, or a separate Sikh homeland. His rapid rise revived memories of the violent insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s in which thousands were killed.
The search for Mr Singh, spanning four Indian states as well as neighbouring Nepal, has been full of twists and turns, including rumours of disguises and dramatic escapes.
GETTY IMAGESThe escape
Punjab police first tried to arrest Mr Singh on 18 March, weeks after he and hundreds of supporters descended on a police station, demanding the release of an arrested aide. After the incident, local police charged him with several cases including attempt to murder and spreading hatred and disharmony.
The bid to arrest him failed - though hundreds of police personnel were deployed, Mr Singh managed to get away in a high-speed car chase which was livestreamed by some of his supporters.
Police said Mr Singh had been travelling in a Mercedes SUV when the chase first began, but that he later shifted to a smaller car and finally to a bike. (Since then, senior police officials have said several times that Mr Singh is travelling around the country in disguise.)
Within hours of Mr Singh's escape, authorities blocked internet services in Punjab - where 27 million people live - restricted the movement of people, and arrested hundreds of Mr Singh's supporters. They also charged him under the stringent National Security Act.
The restrictions were eventually eased but the search operation has continued. BBC Punjabi spoke to several people who said that the heavy police presence in their towns and villages had affected their mental health and livelihoods. The Twitter accounts of several journalists and activists have also been blocked in India - including, briefly, that of BBC Punjabi.
On 21 March, Punjab police released CCTV footage that purportedly showed Mr Singh wearing a disguise while travelling on a motorcycle.
The same day, police also released seven photos of him in different outfits - including an AI-generated version, which shows him without his long beard - asking people to watch out for him.
NARINDER NANUThe search
On 24 March, several media reports said the preacher had been spotted in Delhi.
News agency ANI quoted unnamed police sources who said that Mr Singh, accompanied by an aide, had been seen at a prominent bus terminal disguised as a sadhu, or Hindu preacher.
Delhi and Punjab police teams then launched a search operation in the capital and its borders and arrested more people, believed to be Mr Singh's supporters.
Punjab's Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill told reporters that after escaping, Mr Singh had taken shelter at a woman's house in neighbouring Haryana state. Mr Singh had first tried to get a boat to cross a river into Haryana, but later had to complete the journey on foot, the official said.
Mr Gill added that the woman - arrested on 26 March - revealed during interrogation that Mr Singh had been in touch with her for the last two-and-a-half years, and that his aide had stayed at her home in Kurukshetra district several times.
The police also released surveillance footage believed to be of Mr Singh in Haryana. According to reports, the clip showed a man wearing a white shirt and dark blue jeans hiding his face with an umbrella as he tried to escape from the woman's house.
Around the same time, reports said that Mr Singh may have fled to the northern state of Uttarakhand. However, the Punjab police did not officially confirm this.
On Monday, Nepal said it had put Mr Singh on a surveillance list after the Indian embassy alerted them that he may have entered the country.
GETTY IMAGESSo where did Mr Singh go?
No one seems to know, but the police claim to have found several leads in the past 10 days and say they are following each of them.
In the meantime, local media have been highlighting surveillance footage from various cities which purportedly shows Mr Singh.
This includes a clip that allegedly shows him fleeing in a make-shift cart along with a motorcycle, somewhere in Punjab; an unverified selfie of him holding a drink can with an aide; and footage of him in Delhi wearing a mask - not all of these have been verified by police.
Prominent Sikh leaders and the state's high court have demanded to know how he could possibly remain at large, given teh tens of thousands of security personnel who have been deployed to catch him.
One of the more bizarre twists came when Mr Singh's lawyers even accused the authorities of holding him in secret detention, while they pretend to look for him. His legal adviser alleged he'd been illegally and forcibly detained by police - the high court has demanded evidence.
For now, the search seems to have circled back to Punjab.
This week, the Indian Express newspaper quoted an unnamed investigating official from the state who said that after Mr Singh's escape, the operation has been like looking for "a needle in the haystack".
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