AMRITSAR, INDIA: Mobile and internet services were suspended in several parts of Indian Punjab on Sunday as the country’s police launched what it called a “manhunt” for a prominent Sikh leader Amritpal Singh, Indian media reported.
Statewide “cordon-and-search operations” were launched against ‘Waris Punjab De’, an organization run by Amritpal Singh, a Khalistani leader, as described by the Indian media, on Saturday. “As part of the operations, 78 persons have been arrested and several more have been detained,” media quoted the police as having said.
On Sunday, country-based newpaper; India Today reported that security has been enhanced across the Indian province as the search for Singh entered the second day. “[The] father of Singh, who was declared a fugitive by the Jalandhar Commissioner on March 18 (Saturday), said the Punjab Police carried out searches at his residence in Amritsar but did not find anything illegal,” the newspaper said.
“We don’t have any information about Amritpal’s whereabouts. They [police] carried out a search at our residence for three-four hours but found nothing illegal. Police should have arrested him before he left home,” the newspaper report quoted Amritpal Singh’s father as saying.
Meanwhile, The Wire said that Section 144 of the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, that prohibits assembly of five or more persons, has been imposed in many districts of the Punjab province including Fazilika and Sri Muktsar Sahib, two of the six districts of Punjab bordering Pakistan.
Amritpal Singh’s native village
The Wire further said that heavy police deployment was made in all the district headquarters, including Singh’s hometown near Amritsar city. The paramilitary forces sealed off the Jallupur khera, which is Amritpal Singh’s native town,” it said.
The report also said that mobile SMS and internet services in several districts of Punjab were suspended in the day. The action against Singh, according to The Wire, comes after he along with his workers “laid siege to a police station” in Anjala area of Amritsar to “free one of his aides”. The government confirmed that the action against Singh and his supporters was linked to the attack on the Ajnala police station in February, The Wire said.
