Khalistani supporter and wanted Indian gangster Amritpal Singh is playing hide and seek with Indian police under tight security

A man named Amritpal Singh in India, who is accused as a radical Indian Khalistan separatist and the leader of organization ‘Waris Punjab De’ from Punjab is on run. Punjab State police along with Intelligence agencies are investigating the whole case, and is still empty handed. Amritpal Singh released a video admitting he is still in country and has no intention to leave, after multiple reports confirmed of him being in Nepal. All started in March when Punjab police decided to manhunt and arrest him. According to the information released by the police, he was arrested but his followers stormed the place that helped him to flee.

Earlier, the police faced similar situation in February when Amritpal Singh along with his followers marched to police station, demanding the release of one of the activists associated with his organization. Several arrests have been made so far in connection with this case as a lookout circular and non-bailable warrant is issued against the accused. Amid all this, Punjab IGP Sukhchain Singh Gill told media that all efforts are being put to arrest him and they are hopeful to arrest him soon. They are also receiving full cooperation from other states and central agencies.

Amritpal Singh is charged for several crimes, the one being latest says that he has been registered under Arms Act after an arsenal was recovered from his men. As per PTI, he has been in touch with Pakistani Intelligence agency ISI and few terrorist groups based abroad. It is also believed he is close to UK based Khalistani terrorist Avtar Singh Khanda and is suspected one of the reason for his prominent rise. While other reports speculate that after he threatened Home Minister Amit Shah publicly and said that he will meet the same fate as that of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi if he tried to stop the Khalistan movement, police force came into action and was searching for him.

But what exactly Khalistan is and why it is a threat to India? Khalistani is a separatist movement by selective Sikhs who are seeking to create a separate homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state called Khalistan. Sikh is a minor community in India which is largely located in Punjab State and in some parts of North India. Initiated by Jagjit Singh Chohan in 1929, he was the self-appointed president of the Council of Khalistan. After, as many people started joining the movement it spread globally. Since a big chunk of Sikh community lives in Canada, it becomes a huge possibility of such protests concerning agricultural policies or in favor of Khalistan movement against Indian administration abroad, putting nation’s internal matters and security at risk.

A report claimed, he was allegedly building a ‘private militia’ of youth from drug deaddiction centers to be used for violent protests. Centers were allegedly also used to store the stock of illegal weapons sourced from Pakistan. Now how significant it becomes for India to put stop on spreading domestic terrorism by hunting traitors like Amritpal Singh? Defense expert Hitesh Malhotra said, ‘India is known as a strong voice when it comes to counter terrorism globally. It is one of the nations that never hesitated in bashing Pakistan and other countries for supporting terrorist activities. So taking such cases in account is a priority for Indian administration and that is why more strategies need to be drafted to arrest Amritpal Singh and other gangsters.’

Recently, Centre released a list of 28 most wanted gangsters handling their criminal and terrorist activities from 14 different countries. Out of which 9 of them are based in Canada whereas 5 of them are located in America. The death of Indian rapper, singer and songwriter Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu professionally known as Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022, had put International Gangster Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi on suspect and have been charged under murder, kidnapping and other crimes.

Expert Malhotra discussed the why gangsters flee abroad and how easy it is for them. ‘We have seen the pattern they follow is that they flee either way before they are tagged as gangsters or change their appearances and identity to cross borders. And once they leave the country that put particular legal restrictions over them, they handle activities from foreign itself. They work in groups and try to recruit people on ground to carry those activities forward. Narratives about them regarding violence and crimes help their connections to grow’, he said. Further he added that his escape is not possible until he is in touch with traitors like him.

Simultaneously opposition leaders are blaming each other for Amritpal’s notorious escape. Parties and media reports are criticizing Punjab police for being unable to arrest him and their failure to track his activities. Meanwhile he was spotted numerous times since then on CCTV cameras in different appearances and in different states. Defense expert Malhotra believes that turning of such people into traitors can be a huge threat for the nation and unity is always a solution for everything.