New Delhi: Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh’s key aide Papalpreet Singh was arrested from Punjab on Monday, while the radical preacher himself continues to elude the force.
Papalpreet was picked up from Hoshiarpur in a joint operation by a Delhi Police special cell and Punjab cops.
Papalpreet has often been seen with Singh in video footage of their inter-state run ever since the duo managed to slip out of a police dragnet on 18 March.
Punjab cracked down on Singh – the chief of pro-Khalistan outfit “Waris Punjab De” – following the attack on a police station by these men to free another Singh aide.
After they managed to flee – changing vehicles and clothes – the duo stayed at the house of one Baljeet Kaur in Kurukshetra, Haryana on 19 March. In an undated CCTV clip a few days later, the two were seen in a market in Delhi.
Papalpreet Singh, 38, is considered to be Amritpal’s mentor and advisor, who allegedly was in touch with Pakistan’s ISI, news agency PTI reported. He was also seen driving the motorcycle in which Amritpal fled the police clampdown.
Meanwhile, the last anyone heard from Amritpal Singh was at the end of March when he released a video as well as an audio clip saying he was not negotiating his surrender.
In the video, Singh criticised the Punjab Police for the crackdown on Sikh youth while trying to arrest him. He also mocked the cops saying if the government had any intention of arresting him, they could have come to his house and seen him surrender.
He posted the audio clip the next day and asked the highest temporal body of Sikhs, the Akal Takht, to call a “sarbat khalsa” congregation to discuss issues concerning the community.
The Akal Takht has maintained silence on Singh’s demand, though it had taken a stand in favour of the youth arrested following the statewide crackdown on Amritpal’s outfit.
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