An intelligence note accessed by Times Now revealed that Waris Punjab De head and Khalistan supporter Amritpal Singh’s treasurer, Basant Singh, received funds from Pakistan.
Exclusive: TIMESNOW accesses ‘intel note’.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 18, 2023
As per the note, Amritpal’s tressurer Basant Singh got funds from Pakistan.
Watch here as @priyanktripathi & @mohdziyadansari share details with @dekameghna pic.twitter.com/ELSsuoHQ3M
According to reports, the agencies have got reports of Amritpal Singh’s connection with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
Reportedly, while Amritpal Singh was in Dubai, he maintained close contact with Jaswant Singh Rode, the brother of Lakhbir Singh Rode, the chief of the Pakistan-based International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). Amritpal Singh currently heads ‘Waris Punjab De’. Furthermore, the source also revealed that Amritpal Singh’s treasurer, Basant Singh Daulatpura, was receiving funds from Pakistan.
Amritpal Singh has been under close surveillance by security agencies ever since he arrived in Punjab last year. The Punjab Police have been consistently informed about his activities.
The revelation came hours after the detention of Amritpal and his associates on Saturday. The Punjab Police detained self-proclaimed radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh after a high-intensity chase while his associates were nabbed earlier. He was going in a convoy of three vehicles. During this time, the police caught two vehicles near Mehtabpur in Shahkot, but Amritpal Singh managed to escape in the third vehicle.
He was detained after a chase at Nakodar and is being taken to Jalandhar. The move came after the Punjab police launched a crackdown on the separatist leader and his group.
A heavy police force of around 50 vehicles was chasing Amritpal Singh’s convoy since morning. When the convoy reached Mehtabpur, the police surrounded it and detained six of his associates in two vehicles. The police also recovered a huge cache of weapons from Amritpal Singh’s accomplices. However, he escaped from his Mercedes car. But after a brief chase, police detained Amritpal Singh.
Earlier, supporters of the Waris Punjab De leader shared unverified videos of police pursuing his convoy in Moga district, with the vehicle eventually speeding to Shahkot near Jalandhar.
Who is Amritpal Singh?
Amritpal is a 30-year-old pro-Khalistan leader who leads an organization named Waris Punjab De. Within six months of his arrival to India and taking over the organization started by late actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, he has reached the point where he can mobilize thousands of supporters and direct them to barge into a police station to get his aide released.
He was born in Jallupur Khera, Amritsar, in 1994. In 2012, he moved to Dubai to join his family’s transport business. Amritpal’s LinkedIn page shows he was the operations manager at Sandhu Cargo, and his mail ID was [email protected]. He did his Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Mechanical Engineering from Lord Krishna Polytechnic College, Kapurthala, Punjab, per his LinkedIn page. OpIndia checked and confirmed the existence of the LinkedIn page that can be accessed from here.
Notably, on February 21, Amritpal Singh issued a veiled threat to Home Minister Amit Shah saying that the latter will have to face a similar fate as that of Indira Gandhi. “Indira tried to suppress, what happened? Now Amit Shah can fulfil his wish and see”, he said.
The organization Waris Punjab De was established by Deep Sidhu, an actor-turned-activist. He gained popularity among pro-Khalistani elements during farmer protests. Sidhu died in a road accident in February 2022. Amritpal Singh was declared head of Waris Punjab De following Sidhu’s death. At that time, Singh was in Dubai. In September 2022, he returned to India and officially took charge of the organization.
