Sources said that Amritpal’s objective is to reach either the United Kingdom or Canada.
NEW DELHI: Multiple Central agencies and the various wings of the Punjab police have failed to locate and arrest Khalistani voice Amritpal Singh who had fled their dragnet more than a month ago on 18 March from Jalandhar district.
Official sources told The Sunday Guardian that he had not fled India despite multiple media reports stating the contrary. A lead that was developed by one of the intelligence agencies had stated that he had fled to Dubai from Kathmandu earlier this month. However, that turned out to be incorrect information.
The fact that he has managed to evade arrest for so long despite being one of the most wanted men in India, means that Singh has become a challenge to the internal security apparatus of India, which also raises questions on the capability of these government bodies to locate and neutralise identified individuals like Singh.
According to one official, Amritpal was in all likelihood getting support from the common people who were helping him to stay hidden, commute and communicate, which was making it more difficult for the agencies to find him.
The Punjab police had arrested one of his closest associates, Papalpreet Singh, from Amritsar on 10 April. Singh’s selfies with Amripal had surfaced online mocking the police after they escaped from Amritsar on 18 March. According to a section within the intelligence community, Papalpreet Singh allowed himself to be arrested in an effort to allow the shifting of focus of the security agencies on Amritpal. On Thursday, Kirandeep Kaur, whom Amritpal had married this year, was stopped from leaving the country as she was about to board a flight from Amritsar to London which is now among one of the most prominent hotspots for Khalistani activities.
Sources told The Sunday Guardian that Amritpal’s objective is to reach either the United Kingdom or Canada, where a section of the Sikh diaspora is openly working for the separate state of Khalistan supported by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies that handle the “K2 (Kashmir-Khalistan)” project.
In case Amritpal flees India and surfaces in either of these two countries, it will come as a massive embarrassment not just for the Punjab police, but for the Central agencies, as Singh is now identified among a “big” face of the Khalistani community.