New Delhi: Nearly two weeks on the run, Punjab radical preacher Amritpal Singh posted a video on social media Wednesday taunting the state government for its inability to arrest him.
Singh said if the Punjab government had any intention of arresting him, it could have sent the police to his house and he would have given in.
The Khalistani sympathiser also slammed the police for arresting many Sikh youth during the crackdown on him and his organisation.
Singh’s video emerged on Wednesday, 12 days after the “Waris Punjab De” chief was at large.
An abandoned car has been recovered from near a gurudwara in Kapurthala, while cops continue their hunt for Singh.
The police have also not confirmed the speculation that Singh may surrender at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. City Police Commissioner Naunihal Singh said: “If he wants to surrender, it is up to him. Punjab Police is a professional organisation. If he surrenders, he will be treated with due legal process.”
#WATCH | Commissioner of Police Amritsar Naunihal Singh speaks on media reports stating Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh likely to surrender at Golden Temple and law and order situation in the city pic.twitter.com/oKTXdI3cI7
— ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2023
Meanwhile, the Punjab government told the state high court Tuesday that it was close to catching the pro-Khalistan preacher.
Singh has been declared a fugitive by the government, and has been on the run ever since a police crackdown on him and his outfit “Waris Punjab De” began on 18 March. Images and videos that emerged on social media have shown him changing his vehicles and appearances multiple times to evade the police.
Cops have detained and arrested many of his colleagues, though Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said those found uninvolved in any anti-national activity would be released from custody.
On 21 March, the Punjab and Haryana High Court rapped the Punjab government for its intelligence failure over Amritpal Singh’s escape. Singh is wanted in several criminal cases, including one under the National Security Act.
The police heightened its surveillance of Singh after the Ajnala incident last month, when Amritpal took the Guru Granth Sahib in a palki to the police station, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, forcing cops to agree to release his associate arrested in a case registered against Amritpal and 25 others in February.
ThePrint’s report on Singh’s private militia – Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) – shows it was still at a nascent stage despite the recovery of over a dozen weapons, including double barrel guns, pistols, hundreds of bullets, bulletproof vests (all bearing the initials ‘AKF’) and videos of men being trained in shooting firearms.
Sources said most of those who joined Singh were drug addicts or former addicts who were in awe of him because of his “demeanour”, which resembled that of Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and also his fancy cars and access to guns.