In Nangal Ambian, a village in Jalandhar district, Ranjit Singh, the priest of the gurdwara, was on the point of go to a relative when he was informed that Amritpal Singh had turned up.
This was round 1 pm on March 18, the day the Punjab Police cracked down on the chief of Waris Punjab De and his aides. Ranjit Singh mentioned he had no thought then in regards to the police motion in opposition to Amritpal.
“Once I heard he was right here, I used to be very apprehensive as a result of I assumed his males could have come to interrupt one thing as that they had achieved in Jalandhar,” he recalled. He mentioned he heaved a sigh of reduction when one of many 4 males accompanying Amritpal mentioned they wanted garments since they needed to go to a “programme”.
The Punjab and Haryana Excessive Courtroom could have rapped the Punjab authorities over the “intelligence failure” that led to Amritpal Singh giving the state police the slip, however many within the ruling dispensation really feel that they’ve managed to demolish the credibilty and picture of the pro-Khalistan preacher and that the safety forces have achieved what that they had got down to do with the operation.
The operation in opposition to Amritpal and his Waris Punjab De was deliberate collectively by Centre and state, executed by Punjab Police and coordinated by ADGP Counter-Intelligence RN Dhoke. Within the crackdown, launched on Saturday, 154 individuals have been arrested with seven of them booked below the NSA and shifted to a jail in Dibrugarh in Assam. Amritpal too has been booked below NSA. A number of senior police officers mentioned that they’re wanting on the operation as a bonus, a minimum of to quell public notion of Amritpal as a hero for a number of youth. “Do you not see how the police is so relaxed? Had they taken it as a failed operation, the scenario would have been totally different.
Opposite to standard perception, Amritpal Singh was not appointed head of Waris Punjab De (WPD) in September 2022 at Rode village in Moga. He anointed himself head of the group on March 04, 2022. The announcement was made on a letter pad embedded with a QR code, which was a Google type to develop into a member of the group.
Membership was open for many nations the place Sikhs lived in good numbers. The shape additionally requested members about their abilities and included a WhatsApp quantity. The letter pad didn’t comprise the identify of any office-bearer of WPD, solely a stamp of WPD. It had photos of Deep Sidhu and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale however no signatures of any office-bearers.
Investigation companies have detected alleged doubtful transactions of over Rs 40 crore, unfold over 7 years since 2016, in a number of financial institution accounts of a minimum of 5 members of Waris Punjab De whose chief Amritpal Singh is on the run.
“In a number of circumstances, it was discovered that cash was obtained within the identify of giving monetary help to the households of some who misplaced their lives through the farmer agitation at Delhi’s borders. In one other case, it was discovered that cash was obtained within the identify of selling non secular actions,” a extremely positioned supply mentioned.
The Mohali police on Tuesday cracked down on supporters of self-styled preacher Amritpal Singh, who had been squatting on Airport Street for the previous few days, and cleared the stretch for vehicular motion.
The siege had been in place since Saturday night when the Punjab Police started their operation in opposition to ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief and his aides. The protesters had been sitting in entrance of Gurdwara Singh Shaheedan, Sohana, since Saturday as they demanded readability on Amritpal Singh’s arrest, whereas simulatenously demanding the discharge of his aides who’ve been nabbed throughout a statewide crackdown by the police.
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