On Saturday, 18th March 2023, the Punjab Police launched a massive crackdown on self-proclaimed radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and Waris Punjab De led by him. While several of his associates were arrested, Amritpal Singh managed to escape after a high-intensity chase, and he is currently on the run. He was going in a convoy of three vehicles. During this time, the police caught two vehicles near Mehtabpur in Shahkot with six of his associates, but Amritpal Singh managed to escape in the third vehicle. The move came after the Punjab police launched a crackdown on the separatist leader and his group ‘Waris Punjab De’.
It is notable that the preparations for this operation were going on for the last few days. The Punjab police were bolstered especially after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the Ajnala incident in which Amritpal Singh and his supporters forcefully entered the police station on February 24, following the arrest of one of his associates. During the clash, the supporters protested and clashed with the police. They were able to release the man from police custody after the seizure of the police station.
At the time when Amritpal Singh mobilized thousands of supporters and directed them to barge into a police station to get his aide released, Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the law and order situation in Punjab state was fine. But fact remains that this major operation of arresting this Khalistan sympathizer came only after chief minister Bhagwant Mann met Amit Shah on 2nd March 2023 in this regard and the subsequent deployment of heavy forces in the state.
During this meeting, CM Bhagwat Mann briefed the Union Home Minister about the Ajnala incident and the law and order situations in the state. He urged that state and central agencies should work together. Notably, even before this meeting, The Ministry of Home Affairs requested that the Central Armed Police Force (CAPFs) send around 2,430 security personnel, including eight companies of its Rapid Action Force, to Punjab ahead of the annual Hola Mohalla celebration.
After this meeting, Bhagwant Mann tweeted, “In the meeting with Amit Shah, we discussed the issue of drones and drugs on the border. The issue of shifting the barbed wire on the border was also discussed. Asked to release Punjab’s stalled rural development fund soon. Centre-Punjab will work together on the issue of law and order.”
ਅੱਜ ਕੇਂਦਰੀ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੰਤਰੀ @AmitShah ਨਾਲ ਮੁਲਾਕਾਤ ਕਰਕੇ ਬਾਰਡਰ ‘ਤੇ ਆਉਂਦੇ ਡ੍ਰੋਨ ਤੇ ਨਸ਼ੇ ਦੇ ਮਸਲੇ ‘ਤੇ ਚਰਚਾ ਕੀਤੀ…ਸਰਹੱਦ ‘ਤੇ ਕੰਡਿਆਲੀ ਤਾਰ ਸ਼ਿਫਟ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਮਸਲਾ ਵੀ ਵਿਚਾਰਿਆ ਗਿਆ…
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) March 2, 2023
ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਰੁਕਿਆ ਪੇਂਡੂ ਵਿਕਾਸ ਫੰਡ ਵੀ ਜਲਦ ਜਾਰੀ ਕਰਨ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਹਾ…
ਕਾਨੂੰਨ ਵਿਵਸਥਾ ਦੇ ਮਸਲੇ ‘ਤੇ ਕੇਂਦਰ-ਪੰਜਾਬ ਮਿਲਕੇ ਕੰਮ ਕਰਨਗੇ…
After this meeting, Union Home Ministry extended support to the border state in the wake of the programs regarding the G-20 summit organized in Amritsar from the 15th to the 17th of March 2023, amid reports that the event will be shifted to some other place outside Punjab due to the law and order situation. At the request of the Punjab government, the central government sent 50 teams of central paramilitary forces to Punjab. The additional deployment provided by the centre included 10 CRPF, 8 RPF, 12 BSF, 10 ITBP, and 10 SSB units. Besides, Union home Ministry also sent eight specialized anti-riot squads of CRPF to Punjab.
These troops reached Punjab on 6th March 2023. They were instructed to stay in the border state from 6th March to 16th March. Their further deployment in the state was kept subject to discussions between the state and centre.
Though these forces were deployed in Punjab days ahead of the G-20 program, the Union home Ministry also had an eye on Amritpal Singh’s activities. According to sources, inputs from the intelligence agencies were also discussed in the meeting between CM Bhagwant Mann and Home Minister Amit Shah.
After four to five months of tracking Amritpal’s actions, intelligence agencies compiled a dossier on the 30-year-old Amritpal Singh, documenting more than ten hate speeches he delivered, the flaunting of firearms by his accomplices, his interactions in cyberspace, social media accounts, and visits to drug rehabilitation centers, among other things. This dossier was also presented in the meeting between the two leaders.
Amritpal Singh’s arrest has come on 18th March – the very next day. The extra security forces heavily deployed by the center in the state during the G-20 program are still in Punjab.
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.
After the death of Deep Sidhu, in a social media post, Amritpal Singh was declared heir of Waris Punjab De. However, the family of Deep Sidhu denied any connection to Singh. In May last year, Deep Sidhu’s relative came out as the chief of “real” Waris Punjab De, but it did not gain the traction Amritpal Singh managed to get. Amritpal Singh came to India in September 2022. He went to Georgia before coming to India, and intelligence agencies hinted at a possible connection to ISI in their reports.
Note: This report has been updated with latest developments
