His escape caused reactions as far away as England, Canada and the United States. After a month on the run, the Sikh separatist preacher Amritpal Singh finally arrested on Sunday in Indiaannounced the local police.
Authorities have been chasing him since the 30-year-old Sikh leader and his supporters, armed with swords, knives and guns, stormed a police station in February following the arrest of a Singh aide for assault and alleged attempted kidnapping.
He demanded the creation of Khalistan
The attack in broad daylight on the outskirts of Amritsar, a city in northwestern India that is home to Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, left several police officers injured. Ultimately, Singh was arrested on Sunday at 06:45 local time (01:15 GMT) in a village in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab. “When he realized that he could not escape and was surrounded, he was arrested,” Sukhchain Singh Gill, a senior local police official, told reporters. The fugitive was nearby, in a temple.
Amritpal Singh has made a name for himself in recent months by preaching radical Sikhism, even demanding the creation of a Sikh state called Khalistan to break away from India, a country with a Hindu majority. His idol: Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, radical leader and symbol of the Khalistan movement, was killed in 1984 after an Indian army attack on separatists at the Golden Temple, which killed at least 400 people.
The former fugitive wore a blue turban similar to the one worn by Bhindranwale, had a long beard, and was even reported to have undergone surgery in 2017. Georgia to be more like his hero.
“I was never afraid of being arrested and I am not afraid today”
After the attack on the police station in Amristar, authorities tried to arrest the preacher, but he fled suddenly on a motorbike after hastily changing clothes at a nearby temple.
More than a hundred of his supporters were arrested, and the entire state of Punjab, which has a population of 30 million, 58% of whom are Sikhs, was denied mobile internet access for several days.
This did not stop the preacher from mocking the authorities in a video posted on social media in late March. Seen in Delhi, he described the police operation as an “attack on the Sikh community”. “I was never afraid of being arrested and I am not afraid today. My spirits are good. Nothing can hurt me. It is a wish Lord “, he says.
The video has not been independently verified, but its authenticity is somewhat questionable. It has been published on the account Twitter is based in the UK and Canada, but the social network has removed it in India at the request of the government.
Outrage abroad
This hunt even caused an international reaction. His supporters organized a demonstration of support in front of the consulate Indian On great BritainOn Canada and in the United States, sometimes punctuated by acts of vandalism.
OWN San Francisco, demonstrators broke windows; own Londonan Indian flag was torn from the embassy, and in the Canadian province of Ontario, a statue Gandhi searched.
India summoned American, British and Canadian diplomatic missions in New Delhi to protest and demand that the security of Indian missions in these countries be guaranteed. India may often complain about the activities of the Sikh diaspora abroad New Delhi to revive the separatist movement thanks to large financial assistance.
Punjab state, where 58% of Sikhs and 39% of Hindus live, experienced a violent separatist movement supporting Khalistan in the 1980s and early 1990s, which left thousands dead.
