'The day when Ajnala incident took place, Bhagwant Mann was sitting in Mumbai with Arvind Kejriwal'
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered that Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, currently detained in Dibrugarh jail, Assam, will appear virtually before a trial court in Amritsar for the 2023 Ajnala police station attack case.
The Punjab government has filed a plea seeking the continued detention of MP Amritpal Singh in Dibrugarh jail, Assam, citing security concerns. The High Court dismissed Amritpal's plea challenging his detention under the National Security Act.
Amritpal Singh, chief of 'Waris Punjab De', will be formally arrested again by Punjab Police after his detention under the National Security Act (NSA) ends. He will remain in Dibrugarh Central Jail, where he has been lodged for three years, and face trial via video-conferencing in the Ajnala police station attack case.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is considering a plea regarding incarcerated MP Amritpal Singh's absence from Parliament, which has reached 59 sittings. The court has been informed that Singh can apply for condoning his absence, as continuous absence for 60 sittings could lead to his seat being declared vacant.
A pro-Khalistan terror module, backed by Pakistan's ISI, carried out a blast at a freight corridor railway track near Patiala, resulting in the death of the suspect. Police have arrested four members of the group and suspect the module aimed to create terror and disrupt peace in the state.
Amritpal Singh said in an interview with ANI that incident and subsequent release of Lovepreet Singh will "change the course of the future".
The two leaders discussed the law and order issue. Mann told Shah about the circumstances leading to the Ajnala incident, sources said.
Thousands of Amritpal's supporters had entered the Ajnala police station in Amritsar on February 23 this year to free a member, who had been arrested in an abduction case.
The radical preacher's brazen activities evinced his methodical efforts to undermine the fabric of society, they claimed and added that he during his speeches and sermons alleged that the government was leaving no stone unturned in its quest to disarm Sikhs by revoking their weapons licences.
Harpreet Singh alias Happy Passia alias Jora, an alleged terrorist who had illegally entered the US, was arrested by the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Sacramento.
"Amritpal Singh came to the Rodewal Gurudwara on Saturday night. He himself informed the police about his presence and that he will surrender this morning at 7 am," claimed Singh Sahib Giani Jasbir Singh Rode of Rodewal Gurudwara in Moga, while speaking to ANI over phone.
Amritpal Singh, the chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, who is lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, has thrown his hat into the ring as an Independent.
Donning a flowing white chola' and a navy blue turban and often escorted by armed supporters, radical preacher and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh has been quite active in Punjab for some time.
Most political leaders in Punjab have come out in the open to oppose him, unlike the early 1980s when political leaders were scared of speaking against Bhindranwale, observes Sudhir Bisht.
Amritsar Rural senior superintendent of police Satinder Singh said seven of Amritpal's associates have been arrested under the provisions of the Arms Act.
Haryana Police have arrested a woman who allegedly harboured Amritpal Singh and his associate Papalpreet Singh at her home in Kurukshetra district, an indication that the pro-Khalistan preacher might have fled Punjab.
Virk on Saturday said the state police should have been more prepared to deal with such a situation.
Rode, the place chosen for the dastarbandi (turban-tying) event on September 29, 2022, happens to be the ancestral village of slain terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
In a video message on Sunday, Mann also thanked the people of Punjab for their cooperation and said he does not want the youth to be misled by people with vested interests who run their shops by driving a campaign against the country.
Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh has distanced himself from his mother's statement in which she had said that her son was not a Khalistani supporter, according to a statement issued by the Khadoor Sahib MP.
Radical preacher Amritpal Singh's aide and kidnapping accused Lovepreet Singh walked out of a jail in Amritsar on Friday, hours after a court in Ajnala ordered his release based on an application by the police.
Carrying swords and other arms, scores of supporters led by Singh had assembled at the police station in Ajnala in Amritsar. They broke the barricades put up by police.
Despite giving an assurance of a peaceful demonstration, the protesters used sharp-edged weapons, the police said.
'It is funny that he's on CCTV all the time, but the Punjab police can't find him.'
'All this while he has been maintaining that he is innocent and, if that is the case, why will he run away?'
Amritpal Singh has been styling himself on the lines of terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed during Operation Blue Star in 1984, by copying his attire, mannerisms, carrying an arrow, keeping a battery of armed bodyguards and taking the shield of religion.
On Saturday late evening, Jalandhar commissioner Kuldeep Singh Chahal confirmed that the radical leader had been declared a "fugitive".
'Punjab is a border state and no one knows the ISI's game plan. It can stoop down to any level.'
'This incident is likely to embolden the radicals as also the sleeper cells of terrorists and their masters hiding abroad, including Pakistan.'
During their state-wide operation, police seized one .315 bore rifle, seven 12 bore rifles, one revolver, and 373 live cartridges of different caliber, they said.
The state police has so far arrested 112 supporters of Amritpal.
Security forces took out flag marches at several places including Ferozepur, Bathinda, Rupnagar, Faridkot, Batala, Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Moga and Jalandhar in a show of strength.
'The victory is an expression of agrarian distress and social turmoil.'
The Akali Dal is convinced that Waris Punjab De and Amritpal Singh are part of a bigger plan to create a law and order problem in the state, leading to the imposition of central rule and even the exclusion of Punjab from the Lok Sabha polls as was done in 1991.
Amritpal Singh and others are on the run and a massive manhunt has been launched to nab them, a police spokesperson said.
Amid a police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Monday asked the Punjab government to stop arresting 'innocent' Sikh youths.
The state authorities had on Saturday suspended the internet and SMS services till Sunday noon.
'Many times when Khalistan slogans are raised, it is from those who feel alienated, not because they want a separate state.'
The Income Tax notice was recovered from the house of Baljeet Kaur at Shahabad in Kurukshetra in Haryana where Papalpreet and Amritpal had taken shelter on March 19 and 20 before fleeing from there.
