the run of a Sikh separatist preacher puts the Punjab authorities on their teeth

For the fourth day in a row, several million inhabitants of Punjab were still deprived of Internet access on Tuesday 21 March. A cut that the authorities justified by the need to avoid the dissemination of “rumors” and “fake news” about the run of Amritpal Singh. The Punjab government also announced that internet access restrictions had been partially lifted later in the day.

Since Saturday, the Sikh separatist preacher has been actively sought by hundreds of police officers in Punjab after a massive protest by his supporters outside a police station in Ajnala near the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in February. The demonstrators, some armed with guns and swords, demanded the release of Lovepreet Toofan, a relative of Singh charged with kidnapping. Faced with pressure from the crowd and the risk of clashes with the police, he was finally released. Six police officers were injured.

The new leader of Waris Punjab De

Six relatives of the preacher, as well as his uncle, have already been arrested and charged under India’s very strict national security law, four of them have been imprisoned in a state prison. ‘Assam this Monday. According to the Inspector General of Punjab Police, Sukhchain Sikh Gill, numerous weapons as well as vehicles used by separatist militants from Waris Punjab De have been found, including a Mercedes which would have enabled Amritpal Singh to flee on Saturday after a chase with the police. It remains to this day still untraceable.

Amritpal Singh, 30, is the new leader of the Waris Punjab De organization, whose name could be translated as “The Inheritors of Punjab”, which demands the creation of a Sikh breakaway state called Khalistan by preaching radical Sikhism. . He took over from the organization’s founder, Deep Sidhu, following his death in a car accident on February 15, 2022.

Amritpal Singh’s past remains rather vague. We know of him that he was born on January 17, 1993 in Jallupur Khaira, in the district of Amritsar where he lived a good part of his life. In 2012, he emigrated to Dubai to work in the transport company of one of his uncles. At the time, he wore neither a beard nor a turban until his return to Punjab where he appeared dressed similarly to a devout Sikh and where he would be officially designated Deep Sidhu’s successor as head of Waris Punjab De.

Violent separatist movements in favor of Khalistan

The state of Punjab, where 57% Sikhs and 39% Hindus live, experienced violent separatist movements in favor of Khalistan in the 1980s and early 1990s, which claimed thousands of lives. The violence culminated in 1984 during Operation Blue Star, which aimed to put down the Sikh insurrection. The attack of the Indian army against the separatists entrenched in the Golden Temple of Amritsar had then left more than 400 dead, including the emblematic Sikh separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. This event then led a few months later to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of his Sikh bodyguards.

Amritpal Singh today plays much of his resemblance to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, so much so that some of his supporters call him “Bhindranwale 2.0”. The growing popularity of the new leader of Waris Punjab De has raised fears of an upsurge in violence, even if the Punjab authorities are reassuring. ” We have arrested 114 people so far and there is peace and harmony throughout the state assured the police on Monday.

While the situation remained calm in Punjab, supporters of Singh ransacked the Indian consulate in San Francisco, while similar incidents took place in London before the Indian High Commission, which led to the summoning of a senior British diplomatic representative at the Indian Foreign Office for an explanation of the lack of protection of the premises.