Chandigarh: After eluding the Punjab Police for 36 days, Waris Punjab De (WPD) controversial head Amritpal Singh was arrested Sunday from Moga district and flown to Assam where he was put in a high-security Dibrugarh jail.
Amritpal was arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) for activities “prejudicial to the security of India and the maintenance of public order.”
The self-styled preacher, who was an unknown Sikh living in Dubai till August last year, witnessed a mercurial rise on his return to India, becoming the face of a fresh demand for the creation of Khalistan.
While he claimed to be on a “pious” journey to encourage Sikh youth to partake in Amrit, give up drugs and preach Sikhism, Amritpal and his supporters virtually soon declared themselves above law. Amritpal moved with heavily armed men in swanky vehicles, mocked the Constitution, openly exhorted separatism and asked Sikh youth to weaponise themselves.
Following the 18 March crackdown, the Punjab Police found that he was not a mere rabble rouser but had set up an armed unit, the Anandpur Khalsa Fauj, for which he was training men to use weapons and dealing in unaccounted for cash being received through various channels from abroad. The police collected evidence to suggest that Amritpal has connections with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
Who is Amritpal
Amritpal belongs to a rich Jat Sikh business family of Jallu Khera in Amritsar near Beas. His father Tarsem Singh and paternal uncle Harjit Singh travelled Punjab, Dubai and Canada, running a transport business – Sandhu Cargo Transport.
Amritpal left for Dubai to help his uncle in his transport business shortly after Class 12. His LinkedIn profile shows him as operational manager with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering “with focus on mechanical engineering” from Lord Krishna Polytechnic College in Kapurthala. The police have now found that he left the polytechnic where he was pursuing a diploma midway.
Amritpal is the elder of three brothers and sisters, the younger being twins. Not much is known about his younger brother who reportedly works in a Chandigarh IT company, or his younger sister who is married abroad.
In February, Amritpal married UK resident Kirandeep Kaur, whom he says he had known for some years. On Thursday, the police stopped her from boarding a flight to Birmingham.
Also Read: ‘Amritpal didn’t surrender, came out of gurdwara when he saw there was no escape,’ say Punjab Police
Deep Sidhu and Shambhu Morcha
In order to understand Amritpal’s rise, one has to begin with Sandeep Singh alias Deep Sidhu, a lawyer-turned-actor who first starred in the film ‘Ramta Jogi’ in 2015.
Sidhu came into the limelight in September 2020 when he joined other singers and actors to extend support to the farmer’s agitation against the now junked three central farm laws. Sidhu expressed his differences with the farmer leaders and launched his own sit-in protest at Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana. Backing and guiding him in his efforts was known Sikh radical Palwinder Singh Talwara.
Sidhu’s old friend from the film world Dajit Kalsi supported him to begin the Shambhu Morcha. The Morcha continued till the farmers’ agitation movement moved from Punjab to Delhi in the last week of November 2020.
Later, Kalsi was instrumental in handing over the baton of Sidhu’s Waris Punjab De to Amritpal. Kalsi is among those arrested under the NSA.
Republic Day turning point
Although he coalesced his Shambhu Morcha with the farmers at Singhu, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) shunned Sidhu for his radical thinking and views about Khalistan which he expressed freely through his Facebook live updates.
On the eve of Republic Day 2021, SKM’s official stage at the Singhu border was hijacked by radical Sikh youth insisting on entering Delhi as part of the planned farmer’s march the next day. Sidhu addressed this gathering amid Khalistani sloganeering.
On 26 January, 2021 Sidhu led a group of radical youngsters to the Red Fort and helped them hoist the kesari flag. Many of those present at the Red Fort later joined Sidhu’s WPD.
Though arrested for this act, he was hailed as a hero in the radical circles in Punjab following his bail. On 30 May, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Khalistan supporter Simranjit Singh Mann honoured Sidhu by tying a dastar on his head.
WPD & Clubhouse
Formally launching WPD on 29 September, 2021 in Chandigarh, Sidhu said that to begin with he was setting up an outfit that would work towards social reformation.
WPD started an enrollment campaign and though no details are available of its membership base, its presence on the social media was kept alive by supporters like Gurinder Pal Singh alias Gur Aujla who was instrumental in shifting WPD’s social media support base from Sidhu to Amritpal. He is now lodged at Dibrugarh jail in Assam.
Sidhu had also gained support of a number of radicalised Sikh youth like Amritpal among the NRI Punjabis. Amritpal defended Sidhu’s actions on Facebook and Twitter and began participating in discussions in chat rooms created on the social app Clubhouse with Sidhu and his social media group. He mostly moderated these discussions. On a few occasions, he had direct phone call conversations with Sidhu.
Also Read: Amritpal’s rise and fall expose a vulnerable Punjab. Minority bashing will boost radicalism
Amritpal made WPD head
On February 15 last year Sidhu died in a car accident on the KMP Expressway while on his way from Gurugram to Bathinda. With Sidhu gone, there was a scramble in his team to take hold of the reins of Waris Punjab De.
A small body was created by Sidhu’s family, including his uncle Baba Bidhi Singh, to run WPD. This included apart from Talwara, Sikh leaders Sukhpreet Singh Udoke, Ajmer Singh and Harnek Singh Uppal. Uppal was made in charge.
But a handful of other WPD members including Kalsi, Basant Singh Daulatpura, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala and Gur Aujla decided that Amritpal should head the WPD. This group was very impressed by Amritpal whom they thought was not only inspired by Sidhu’s ideology, but was also outspoken and articulate like him.
On March 4, this group issued a letter announcing Amritpal as the WPD head. Amritpal was quick to announce his acceptance of the “responsibility” on his social media handles the same day. He apologised for his various utterances on social media, saying that since a new journey of his life was beginning, he wanted to do so on a clean slate.
The original WPD headed by Uppal and Talwara put up a feeble protest, but Kalsi and his group was solidly behind Amritpal defending their choice multiple times on the social media.
Amritpal hits ground running
Overnight, a 30-year-old social media activist from nowhere was heading an outfit which a section of Punjab’s radical youth had taken some fancy to. Amritpal, a Sikh with shorn hair for the most part of his life, reached Punjab on August 20 last year sporting a pagdi and some beard that he had managed to grow since his anointment.
Sources say that before coming to Punjab, he spent some time in Georgia getting a surgery done. While police sources said that the surgery involved some changes made to his face to make him look like Bhindranwale, Amritpal claimed in multiple interviews that he underwent an eye surgery.
Once in Punjab, Amritpal hit the proverbial ground running. His uncle Harjit Singh, who had returned from Canada to work full time for WPD, became Amritpal’s virtual shadow and his manager. Radical Sikh intellectual Papalpreet Singh trained him in Sikh history and the Khalistan movement of the 1980s-1990s. Other WPD members began organising invites for Amritpal for addressing ‘samagams’. Both Papalpreet and Harjit Singh are now in Dibrugarh jail.
Among the first people Amritpal met in the first week of September last year was Talwara to try and put an end to the division in the WPD. He, however, did not visit Sidhu’s family. The controversy more or less ended when Sidhu’s brother Mandeep put out a video asking everyone to work together rather than fight.
In mid-September last year, Simranjit Singh Mann too lent support to Amritpal addressing a joint press conference with him and Papalpreet Singh.
After addressing a few ‘samagams’ in nearby villages, Amritpal was confident of talking to larger audiences. A big programme was held on 25 September at the historical Anandpur Sahib gurdwara where he along with several other youth became baptised Sikhs.
On September 29, Amritpal’s dastar bandi ceremony was held at the gurdwara at village Rode built in the memory of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. More than seven months later, Amritpal chose the same gurdwara to surrender before the Punjab Police.
Long rope to Amritpal
A few days after his Dastar Bandi, Amritpal started courting controversy with his speeches. In October, hundreds of Christians protested in Jalandhar against Amritpal’s uncharitable remarks about Jesus Christ.
After the daylight murder of Right-wing Hindu leader Sudhir Suri in Amritsar on November 4, the family of the victim openly blamed Amritpal demanding action against him, but the police decided not to question Amritpal.
The police also failed to act against Amritpal in November when he and his men during the first Khalsa Vaheer in November-December vandalised gurdwaras.
In his speeches at various ‘samagams’ (religious programs) in gurdwaras and in his media interactions, Amritpal made it very clear that he was not just working for social reformation through drug de addiction or the spread of Sikh religion through Amrit sanchar, but also for the self determination of the Sikhs in the form of Khalistan.
No action was taken against Amritpal when during a media interaction on 21 February he seemed to threaten Union Home minister Amit Shah of meeting the same fate as former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Ajnala siege tipping point
The first FIR against Amritpal was lodged at Ajnala on 16 February on the complaint of Varinder Singh, a resident of Chamkaur Sahib, who claimed that Amritpal and his men had kidnapped and assaulted him for speaking against them. Apart from Amritpal, another 25 supporters were also booked. Amritpal’s associate Lovepreet Singh alias Toofan was picked up by the police.
On 23 February, Amritpal and hundreds of his supporters laid siege to the Ajnala police station taking the sacred Guru Granth Sahib with them. The police gave in and Toofan was released from jail the next day. Amritpal led a “victory procession” to his village.
At that time, Amritpal seemed to have gotten the better of the Punjab government and the police. But less than a month later on 18 March, police launched a major operation against Amritpal and his men, arresting hundreds of his supporters in a single day.
(Edited by Tony Rai)