NEW DELHI – Pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh has been arrested, local media reported on Sunday.
Police were searching for him for more than a month, but (he) today surrendered before Punjab police, the report added.
However, on the other hand, Sukhchain Singh Gill, a top police official told reporters that Amritpal has been arrested from the Rode village in Moga district on the basis of specific intelligence.
#AmritpalSingh arrested in Moga, Punjab.
Further details will be shared by #PunjabPolice
Urge citizens to maintain peace and harmony, Don't share any fake news, always verify and share.
— Punjab Police India (@PunjabPoliceInd) April 23, 2023
Singh, 30, a preacher in the state of Punjab where Sikhs are in the majority, has revived talk of an independent Sikh homeland and stoked fears of a return to violence that killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and early 1990s during a Sikh insurgency.
The prominent Sikh leader who leads a group called Waris Punjab De (the heirs of Punjab) comes after the self-styled preacher and hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station with swords and firearms, demanding the release of one of his aides.
Police have accused Singh and his supporters of attempted murder, obstruction of law enforcement, and creating disharmony, and said he had been on the run since mid-March.
He was arrested in the village Gurudwara, a Sikh temple, under the National Security Act, which allows for those deemed a threat to national security to be detained without charge for up to a year, the police official said.
Gill said he would be moved to Dibrugarh, in the state of Assam, where some of his associates are already in jail.
