A Sikh spiritual chief, Jasbir Singh Rodde, stated Singh surrendered to police after providing morning prayers at a Sikh shrine in Moga.
(Reuters)
Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh has surrendered to police, after greater than a month on the run, and he was subsequently arrested by police in a transfer seen as a authorities response towards the revival of an impartial homeland within the state of Punjab bordering Pakistan.
The rise of Singh, a preacher within the northwestern state of Punjab the place Sikhs are within the majority, has revived speak of an impartial Sikh homeland and stoked fears of a return to violence that killed tens of 1000’s of individuals within the Nineteen Eighties and early 1990 s throughout a Sikh insurgency.
“Amritpal Singh has been arrested from the Rode village in Moga district, Punjab on the idea of particular intelligence,” Sukhchain Singh Gill, a high official of the Punjab police advised reporters on Sunday.
Supporters of Singh, nevertheless, insisted that he voluntarily gave himself as much as authorities.
A Sikh spiritual chief, Jasbir Singh Rodde, stated Singh surrendered to police after providing morning prayers at a Sikh shrine in Moga.
The arrest of Singh, 30 – who leads a bunch referred to as Waris Punjab De (the heirs of Punjab) – comes after the self-styled preacher and a whole bunch of his supporters stormed a police station with swords and firearms, demanding the discharge of one in every of his aides.
Police have accused Singh and his supporters of tried homicide, obstruction of regulation enforcement, and creating disharmony, and stated he had been on the run since mid-March.
He was detained within the village of Gurudwara, a Sikh temple, below the Nationwide Safety Act, which permits for these deemed a menace to nationwide safety to be detained with out cost for as much as a 12 months, the police official stated.
Gill stated he can be moved to Dibrugarh, within the state of Assam, the place a few of his associates are already in jail.
Singh kinds himself on Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a figurehead of the Khalistan motion killed when the Indian military stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a serious Sikh website, in 1984.
He sports activities a equally styled blue turban and lengthy beard and reportedly travelled to the previous Soviet republic of Georgia final 12 months for beauty surgical procedure to look extra like his hero.
Singh and his supporters, armed with swords, knives and weapons, raided a police station in February after one of many preacher’s aides was arrested for assault and tried kidnapping.
Authorities then tried to arrest Singh, however he dramatically escaped, reportedly on a motorcycle after altering garments at a gurdwara.
Deploying 1000’s of officers within the manhunt, authorities minimize off cellular web for days within the Sikh-majority northern state of 30 million folks of their search.
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