In a major success for the Punjab Police, Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh on Sunday was arrested in a joint operation conducted by Amritsar Police & Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police. Amritpal Singh, who was on the run for 36 days was arrested from Village Rode in Punjab. As per IGP Sukhchain Gill, the Punjab Police got an operation input that Amritpal Singh has been hiding Rode's Gurudwara Sahib, the same place where his Dastarbandi took place. As a result, the Punjab Police cordoned off the area, however, did not enter the premises of Gurudwara Sahib in order to maintain the sanctity. When there was no way out for Amritpal, the Waris Punjab De was finally arrested from Rode's village at 6:45 am on Sunday. Keeping security in mind, the Waris Punjab De Chief has now been sent to Assam's Dibrugarh jail. Notably, many of Amritpal's associates are already lodged in Dibrugarh jail. With Amritpal Singh arrested, below is a brief timeline of how the radical pro-Khalistan came from Dubai and became the 'Bhindrawale 2.0' of India. Amritpal Singh arrest timeline-
Amritpal Singh's arrest timeline
September 29, 2022
29-year-old, Amritpal Singh became the President of 'Waris Punjab De'- an organization founded by late Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu that aimed to protect the rights of Punjab and raise social issues. Amritpal Singh was made president President of Waris Punjab De in a Dastarbandi ceremony at Gurudwara Sahib of Rode Village. Notably, Rode is the native village of late Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale. From that moment, due to his same ideologies and appearance, his followers started to call him Bhindrawale 2.0. Notably, Deep Sidhu who was also one of the accused in the 2021 Republic Day riots, died in a road accident on 15th February 2022. Interestingly, Deep Sidhu's family had distanced themselves from the new president Amritpal Singh who openly called for the formation of Khalistan and expressed his admiration for Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
February 17, 2023
Amritpal Singh's associate Lovepreet Singh aka Toofan was arrested by police on February 17 on charges of kidnapping and assault on a Chamkaur Sahib-based resident Varinder Singh. Toofan's arrest triggered off the violent clash that took place between supporters of Amritpal Singh and police at Ajnala police station. As per Punjab Police, Amritpal Singh had assured the security forces that he and his followers will carry out a peaceful demonstration outside Ajnala Police station, however, things went totally sideways as the Waris Punjab Chief's followers went no hold barred against the Punjab Police.
February 23, 2023 in the morning
After Toofan's arrest, Amritpal Singh announced that he will conduct a march from his village to Ajnala police station to mark the protest against the registration of an FIR against him and his associates and demand the release of his aide, who was arrested by the police. In wake of the announcement made by Amritpal Singh, over 500 policemen were deployed to hold back the marching protestors and layers of barricades were laid on the way. While Amritpal Singh assured the Police that they will hold a peaceful protest, things soon went sideways as it he and his supporters launched an all out attack against the Police. On February 23, at around 1.45 pm, the crowd with swords and sticks began approaching and suddenly turned violent. They broke all the layers of barricades put on to block the roads with their vehicles and marched towards the Ajnala police station. Another layer of barricade was laid ahead of Ajnala police station, where the crowd allegedly became violent and started attacking the police deployed there with swords, and sticks and also pelted stones at them. They broke the layer of barricades and went on to capture the police station. Notably, Waris Punjab De Chief and his followers used the holy Guru Granth Sahib as a shield and to maintain the sanctity of the holy book, the Punjab Police had to fall back. At the end of the day, the Police officials assured the Waris Punjab De chief and his followers to release Toofan from Police custody.
The Ajnala clash took place for almost 6 hours in which multiple Policemen were injured. Following hours of standoff and clashes, the Punjab Police were forced to strike a deal with Amritpal Singh and agreed to release his aide Lovepreet Toofan on February 24.
February 24, 2023
After forcing the Police to strike a deal, Lovepreet Singh aka Toofan came out of Amritsar Central Jail while raising slogans of ‘Raj Karega Khalsa’ and ‘Amritpal Singh Jindabad’. It is pertinent to mention here that Toofan's family and Amritpal had alleged that Lovepreet was at the hospital with his wife on February 15, the day the alleged crime was committed in which he was nominated.
March 7, 2023
After a few days, the Punjab Police amped up its crackdown against the 'anti-national' elements and started to take strict action against Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh’s associates. Arms licenses of 9 associates of Amritpal Singh were cancelled in an attempt to make sure that no Ajnala like incident take place in the future. Punjab Police cancelled arms licenses of Waris Punjab De Chief’s close associates namely Harjit Singh Amritsar, Baljinder Singh Amritsar, Ram Singh Brar Kotkapura, Gurmat Singh Moga, Avtar Singh Sangrur, Varinder Singh Tarn Taran, Harpreet Devgan Patiala, Amritpal Singh Tarn Taran and Gurbej Singh.
March 18, 2023- Amritpal Singh flees from Punjab Police
Finally, Punjab Police launched a massive crackdown against Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh while he was on his way to Shahkot. The Police department of eight districts of Punjab carried out operation to nab Amritpal Singh, however, he somehow dogged the Police. Although 6 associates of Waris Punjab De Chief were arrested at the same day, Amritpal managed to escape from the Police net who was traveling from Jalandhar to Moga.
February 26: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann broke his silence on the worsening law and order situation in the state of Punjab due to Amritpal Singh. On Twitter, Punjab CM spoke about the Ajnala clash: "Shabad Guru Sheesh, who carries Guru Granth Sahib ji with a shield to the police stations, cannot be called the "heir" of Punjab and Punjabiat from any side." Not only this, Amritpal Singh's Instagram handle was also suspended.
ਸ਼ਬਦ ਗੁਰੂ ਸ਼ੀੑ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ ਨੂੰ ਢਾਲ ਬਣਾ ਕੇ ਥਾਣਿਆਂ ਤੱਕ ਲੈ ਕੇ ਜਾਣ ਵਾਲੇ ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ ਪੱਖ ਤੋਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਅਤੇ ਪੰਜਾਬੀਅਤ ਦੇ “ ਵਾਰਿਸ ” ਅਖਵਾਉਣ ਦੇ ਕਾਬਿਲ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋ ਸਕਦੇ..
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) February 25, 2023
March 19: Punjab police arrested seven close aides of Amritpal Singh. Things like bulletproof jackets and weapons were recovered by police from his close aides. A new angle popped out when a sign of AKF was noticed by Punjab Police. Later in the investigation it was revealed that Amritpal Singh was making his own militia AKF (Anandpur Khalsa Fauj.
March 20: After being declared a fugitive, Punjab Police also invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against five men, including Amritpal's uncle, Harjit Singh. Also, Harjit was brought before Baba Bakala Court in Amritsar and was later moved to Dibrugarh in Assam by the Punjab Police.
March 24
During the briefing, IGP Gill outlined the arrest of Amritpal Singh's gunman/aide Tajinder singh alias Gorkha Baba and stated that many anti-national materials have been recovered from his phone including pictures of an alleged firing range being constructed in Jallupur Khera.
Amritpal Singh made a firing range near his village Jallupur Khera for practice, where the people of AKF were getting trained from ex-servicemen to use modern weapons.#Amritpal #AmritpalSingh #AmritpalArrest #ViralVideo #TrendingVideo #Punjab #PunjabNews #AKF #AKFVideo pic.twitter.com/NzGkQ7jolN
— True Scoop (@TrueScoopNews) March 24, 2023
April 21, 2023
Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh's wife Kirandeep Kaur was stopped at Amritsar Airport by immigration officials who was trying to board a London flight. After hours of questioning at the airport, Kirandeep Kaur was sent back home. At first, it was reported that Kirandeep was detained, later the authorities clarified that she was stopped for questioning. One of the relatives stated that immigration officials did not clarify why Kiran was stopped. They stated that their legal team will get a proper answer why Kirandeep was not allowed to leave the country.
April 23, 2023
Amritpal Singh arrested from slain Bhindrawale's native village.