Chandigarh: Hours after pro-‘Khalistan’ preacher Amritpal Singh is said to have been spotted at a village in Hoshiarpur, a video message purportedly issued by him has surfaced on social media.
In the video — which has gone viral, but whose veracity has not been confirmed — Amritpal appeals to the jathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Harpreet Singh, to call a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ on Baisakhi day to “decide the future of the Sikh community”.
A ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ is a general assembly of the Sikhs or the “entire Sikh nation”. The last Sarbat Khalsa was called by a group of radical Sikh bodies in November 2015 in the wake of incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib.
“The Sikh community is faced with several issues and these can only be addressed in the form of a Sarbat Khalsa,” the video shows Amritpal, who has been on the run since 18 March in light of a police crackdown, saying.
“The Sarbat Khalsa should be organised at Damdama Sahib on the occasion of Baisakhi (13 April). Sikhs from India and all over the world should attend the Sarbat Khalsa.”
He then adds, “I am in chardi kala (high spirits)… My arrest is up to Vaaheguru (God). Noone has been able to harm me even though i have gone through testing times.”
Taking a potshot at police efforts to catch him — police have been tracking his movement from Punjab to Delhi to Uttarakhand and even to the Nepal border — he says, “Had the police intended only to arrest me they could have done so while I was at home and I would have given in.
“Instead they put lakhs on duty to surround me from all sides. It was only with the help of saccha paadsha (God) that I was able to escape.”
Since ‘Waris Punjab De’ head Amritpal Singh went on the run, the majority of his close aides have been arrested. However, Amritpal and his mentor Papalpreet Singh remain missing.
The two are wanted by the police in more than half-a-dozen criminal cases, including Amritpal leading hundreds of men to storm a police station in Ajnala last month to secure the release of an aide who was arrested in an assault and kidnapping case.
The purported video message comes hours after Amritpal is believed to have given the police the slip in Hoshiarpur’s Marnaian village.
According to top police sources, following a tip-off, the police Tuesday night chased a white Innova car from Phagwara in which Amritpal and Papalpreet were suspected to be travelling.
The car escaped past a police naka and managed to enter Marnaian village, where the occupants got out on foot and fled through the fields, said a police source.
Police sources added that a search operation is being carried out in and around at least 8 villages, and every vehicle being searched.
Meanwhile, following intelligence inputs that Amritpal may surrender before the Akal Takht at the Golden Temple in Amritsar or Takth Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo, the police have beefed up security at these two places.
On Sunday, the jathedar of the Akal Takht had sent out a message to Amritpal asking him to surrender.
‘Akal Takht jathedar needs to take strong stand’
The video shows Amritpal discussing the beginning of the police crackdown, citing his plans to organise a “vaheer” — a religious procession — in Malwa at the time.
“We thought that the government does not want us to start the (Khalsa) vaheer in Malwa and we tried to reach there by any means available,” he says. “The internet had been shut down and (we were) not even able to get any news of what was happening. Now, I have seen some news and realise that the Punjab government has rained atrocities on Sikh youths akin to what the Beant Singh government had done. They have not even spared women and children or even handicapped persons.”
Beant Singh is a former chief minister of Punjab who was assassinated in 1995. He is credited with crushing the violent Sikh militancy movement with a heavy hand.
“It is not just the question of my arrest. It is a question of attack on an entire community,” Amritpal is heard saying in the video. “The jathedar of the Akal Takht had called a meeting of all the Sikh bodies and issued an ultimatum to the government to release the arrested youths within 24 hours. But the government stooped very low in its response to the Akal Takht.”
After a meeting of Sikh bodies Monday, the Akal Takht jathedar had issued an ultimatum, asking the state government to release the people arrested as part of the Amritpal crackdown within 24 hours, alleging that several innocent youths had been apprehended.
Giani Harpreet Singh had suggested at the meeting that in case the government does not release the Sikh youths, the Akal Takth will take out vaheers across Punjab to show solidarity with them.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann subsequently took a dig at the Akal Takht jathedar, hinting that he was a puppet in the hands of the Shiromani Akali Dal.
In the video, Amritpal is heard saying that “the jathedar of the Akal Takth now needs to take a very strong stand on the issue”. “Instead of taking out vaheers (religious marches) in villages to generate awareness among the people, jathedar sahib should call for a Sarbat Khalsa and take the lead in resolving Sikh issues.”
He adds, “I appeal to all the other Sikh bodies including taksals that if you want to save Punjab, and if we want the Sikh community to get their rights, you should also participate in the Sarbat Khalsa.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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