STATE TIMES NEWS
Dibrugarh/Chandigarh: Radical preacher Amritpal Singh was Sunday arrested by the Punjab police from Moga’s Rode village after a month-long man-hunt and flown by a special flight from Bhatinda air force station to Dibrugarh and lodged in a high security prison where northeast rebels used to be kept earlier.
The rise of the radical preacher with suspected pro-Khalistan sympathies and his successful evasion of arrest ever since he and a posse of arms brandishing supporters stormed a police station last month, was seen as a challenge by the country’s security apparatus, and brought back fears of the militancy which had stalked Punjab in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The preacher was taken into custody in the early hours of the morning at 6.45 am as he came out — in traditional attire that included a sheathed sword — of the gurdwara in Rode, Bhindranwale’s native village and also the place which he took over last year as the chief of Waris Punjab De.
The pujab police which had completely surrounded the Gurudwara where Singh was hiding, detained the 29-year-old radical under the stringent National Security Act.
“A joint operation was conducted by Amritsar police and the intelligence wing of Punjab Police. He was located in village Rode based on operational inputs with Punjab Police. He was surrounded from all sides. The village was surrounded by the Punjab Police,” said Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill.
The special flight which brought him to Assam’s Dibrugarh, nearly 2,000 kms from Bhatinda Air Force station, landed at Dibrugarh at 2.20 pm and a double cordon of armed police personnel whisked him away for a medical check-up and other formalities before eventually lodging him in the Central Jail, where nine other associates of his, picked up over the past several weeks, have also been kept.
Shortly after his arrest, a video surfaced online in which the extremist preacher was seen delivering a brief address, indicating that he is surrendering.
Another clip showed him sitting before a portrait of Bhindranwale, who died in a controversial Army operation in 1984 to flush out militants holed up inside Amritsar’s Golden Temple.
Gill countered the preacher’s claim that it was a “surrender”, and underlined that the fugitive was cornered on the basis of intelligence inputs.
A message was conveyed to the preacher that he had no chance of escaping, Gill said.
“NSA warrants were issued against Amritpal Singh and these have been executed today morning. Further, law will take its own course,” he said.
In a video message hours after the arrest, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said those who disturb peace and harmony in the state will have to face the law, and innocent people will not be disturbed.
Mann said he continuously monitored developments during the night, leading to the arrest.
Former Akal Takht jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode said he met Amritpal Singh at the gurdwara as the preacher prepared to surrender.