NIA raids premises of relatives, aides of radical Amritpal Singh
Chandigarh: The National Investigating Team (NIA) conducted raids at the premises of relatives and aides of Member of Parliament and Sikh radical Amritpal Singh, who is lodged in Dibrugarh Jail under the National Security Act, in connection with a terrorist and gangster network.
The raids were also linked to a 2023 incident in which pro-Khalistan supporters protested outside the High Commission of India in Canada’s Ottawa and an attack on the Indian High Commission in London.
The NIA raid was conducted at several places in Amritsar, comprising his uncle Pragat Singh Sandhu’s house and workshop and his brother-in-law Amanjot Singh’s residence. Amanjot is residing in Canada.
Simultaneously raids were also conducted in Moga, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar districts.
Charanjit Singh Bhinder, a supporter of Amritpal, termed the raids as pressure tactics and harassing the supporters of the MP.
Thirty-one-year-old radical Amritpal Singh, currently locked up in the Assam jail, won the Khadoor Sahib seat in the parliamentary polls.
In April 2023, he was arrested from the village of Khalistani slain terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale after 36 days of cat-and-mouse chase across several states. He was largely unknown till September 2022 when he returned to India from Dubai where he was running his family’s transport business.
After taking charge of ‘Waris Punjab De’ or “the heirs of Punjab” — floated by lawyer-actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu in 2021, Amritpal was trying to position himself as a new fulcrum for the Panthic cause by calling on the youth to “fight for the freedom” of the Panth.
Sidhu, one of the accused in the January 26, 2021, Red Fort violence case, had died in a road accident near Haryana’s Sonepat in February 2022.
In September of that year, Amritpal Singh’s ‘dastar bandi’ (turban tying) ceremony was held at Rode village, marking his official installation as the head of ‘Waris Punjab De’.
However, unlike Bhindranwale, he didn’t have any formal religious schooling. A dropout from a polytechnic, he had cut his hair and shaved off his beard while in Dubai.