Amritpal Singh was arrested this morning following an overnight operation.
New Delhi:
Separatist Amritpal Singh — arrested today after being on the run for more than a month — had not been able to flee India as he thought the police would then move in to arrest his wife. Top sources in Punjab government said Singh’s wife Kirandeep Kaur, a UK national currently in India, was placed under surveillance by the Punjab police since he went underground in March as a crackdown was started against him.
Kirandeep Kaur came to India a week before her wedding in February. Her visa expires in July. She was recently stopped at the Amritsar airport while trying to board a flight to London. She was also questioned last month along with Amritpal Singh’s mother in Amritsar’s Jallupur Khera village.
Sources said Amritpal Singh wanted his wife to get safely out of the country first. He was apprehensive that if he skipped the country, she would be arrested and blamed for his escape.
Since coming under the police radar after his supporters stormed a police station on March 6 to free one of their own, Amritpal Singh has been criss-crossing four states to evade police net. Between Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, he was continuously on the move, never staying at any place for more than a few days.
From Punjab’s Jalandhar, he escaped to Ludhiana, then to Haryana’s Kurukhshetra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit, Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur, then onto Punjab’s Hoshiyarpur, Jalandhar to Moga.
Amritpal Singh was arrested this morning following an overnight operation, during which the Punjab Police cordoned off Rode village in Moga district, where he had been holed in since Friday.
Sources said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was personally monitoring the operation. Around 4 am, he was informed that the village was completely sealed and no escape route was left.
Mr Mann had given strict instructions that the Gurudwara, where Amritpal Singh was hiding, not be stormed. Following his instructions, only two or three police officers were sent to make the arrest.
Sources said Amritpal Singh routed funds for his operations through his wife and parked them in the UK. In an interview with “The Week”, Kirandeep Kaur had said that her family is from Jalandhar and her grandfather moved to the UK in 1951. They visit Punjab every two years and she had got in touch with Amritpal Singh through Instagram.
She married Amritpal Singh on February 11, days before his “Waris Punjab De” supporters attacked the Ajnala Police Station to free his aide Toofan Singh.
Intelligence agencies say Amritpal Singh has been sourcing weapons from Pakistan through its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence and trying to divide Punjab on communal lines.
The village in Moga where Amritpal Singh was arrested today, is the birthplace of Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, whom he idolised. He claims to be his follower and is known as “Bhindranwale 2.0” among his supporters.
He has been taken to Assam’s Dibrugarh jail, where eight of his aides are already being held under the National Security Act, which allows detention up to a year without any charge.
