Chandigarh: “This is only the beginning, not the end,” said Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh minutes before he was arrested by the Punjab Police from Rode village in Punjab’s Moga district Sunday.
The 30-year-old head of Waris Punjab De, wanted by the police for over a month, addressed a small gathering at a Gurdwara in the village, saying that he is surrendering “but will continue his fight”.
The police said Amritpal was arrested at 6.45 am this morning from outside the Gurdwara. Addressing a press conference Sunday, though, Sukhchain Singh Gill, Inspector General (IG), headquarters, and spokesperson for Punjab police, rubbished all claims of Amritpal having “surrendered” to the police. He said the police had received information Saturday night that Amritpal was hiding in village Rode and teams of the police surrounded the Gurdwara in the village last night itself.
“Since Amritpal was inside a Gurdwara and the maryada (respect) of the Gurudwara had to be maintained at all costs, we waited till the morning when he came out and arrested him,” said Gill.
He added that the arrest had come about only after the intense pressure of the police on Amritpal and his men for the past one month. “Last night, too, when he understood that there was no escape from the police naka, he decided to come out of the gurdwara,” said Gill.
The IG added that Amritpal was arrested by the joint efforts of intelligence and police teams.
Jasvir Singh Rode, a former jathedar of the Akal Takth who claimed to have been called by the police before Amritpal’s arrest, told the media that the radical preacher spent the night at the village Gurdwara and prayed there in the morning before “surrendering”.
“He was not caught by the police. He voluntarily offered himself to be arrested. He surrendered,” Rode had said.
He added that he got information about Amritpal’s intent to surrender at 12:30 am from the police after which he travelled from Amritsar to Rode, reaching at 4:30 in the morning.
He said he met Amritpal before his surrender. “Amritpal had had a bath and changed into his proper attire, including his bana (white long dress worn by Sikh preachers) and chappals. After that he prayed at the Gurdwara and then at around 6:30 in the morning he addressed the sangat before surrendering outside the Gurudwara,” said Rode.
Rode said the surrender happened in front of him, adding that Senior Police officers, including that the inspector general (IG) of intelligence and senior superintendent of police of Amritsar (rural) were also present.
It is likely that Amritpal chose the village for symbolic reasons, said police sources, as it is the birthplace of the deceased militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The police believe that Amritpal’s decision to surrender was an attempt to regain his reputation, which he had lost during the past month while he was on the run. During this time, he was seen in CCTV footages using various modes of transportation to evade and hide from law enforcement.
The gurdwara where he surrendered was built in 2018 to mark the birthplace of Bhindranwale.
In his address to the sangat at the gurdwara, Amritpal said he was offering to surrender. “But this is only the beginning and not the end. I may be accused in the worldly courts but I am not accused in the court of the Sacha Patshah (the true Lord). I have come here because I started my journey in Punjab from this sacred gurdwara, where my dastarbandi took place,” he said.
He added that the state government had revealed its true face by oppressing his followers in the manner that it had over the past month. He expressed his gratitude to the sangat for their prayers, which, he said, allowed him to evade the police for over a month. He said he would return to the sangat and continue his mission of baptising Sikh youth and leading the Khalsa vaheer (Khalsa march).
He exhorted Sikh youth to continue the process of partaking in Amrit and to not give up on his goals.
Gill said Amritpal has been shifted to the Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act (NSA) which was invoked against him last month, said sources. He will likely be shifted Sunday via a flight from Bathinda, said Rode.
Nine of his close associates — including his aide and mentor Papalpreet Singh, with whom he was on the run till 28 March, his uncle Harjit Singh and Punjabi actor Daljeet Kalsi — are already jailed under the NSA in Dibrugarh.
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Up till now…
Amritpal has been on the run since 18 March when the police launched a massive operation to nab him and his men.
The Khalistan preacher had reached Punjab from Dubai in August last year and was openly espousing the cause of Khalistan besides allegedly indulging in multiple illegal activities, including trying to raise an armed battalion called the Anandpur Khalsa Fauj.
Referred to as the ‘Bhindranwale 2.0’ by the media, he claimed the slain militant to be his inspiration. Bhindranwale had headed a violent movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s for “Sikh sovereignty”. He was killed in Golden Temple in June 1984 following Operation Bluestar.
Amritpal, along with hundreds of supporters had stormed a police station at Ajnala in Amritsar on 23 February in order to secure the release of an aide who had been arrested by the police on allegations of kidnapping and assault.
At least six criminal cases have been lodged against Amritpal since February.
When asked about more details of Amritpal’s arrest, Gill said further details will be shared in the days to come. While Gill did not clarify why the police contacted Rode for Amritpal’s arrest, he said they did so on Amritpal’s insistence.
Rode is the nephew of Bhindranwale and was heading the committee of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to coordinate efforts regarding providing legal and financial aid to families of those arrested since the police crackdown on 18 March. Rode had in September last year permitted the Waris Punjab De outfit to use the premises of the Gurdwara in Rode for Amritpal’s Dastarbandi ceremony.
On Thursday, Amritpal Singh’s wife Kirandeep Kaur was stopped at Amritsar airport from getting on a flight to go to her home country UK by the police. She was forced to miss her flight and was asked to return to her home in Jallupur Khera.
(This is a developing story and will be updated as and when more information is received)