Simranjit Singh Mann, Lok Sabha MP, Khalisatni Sympathiser and the president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), has advised fugitive Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh to leave for Pakistan rather than surrender.
“He shouldn’t surrender, he should cross the Ravi river and go to Pakistan,” Simranjit Singh Mann said in an interview with a local channel.
“We went to Pakistan in 1984 as well, didn’t we?” he added. According to him, if the fugitive decides to flee to Pakistan, it is ‘justified by Sikh history’ because his life is in danger and the Government is ‘oppressing us.’
Maan’s statement came amid reports that the fugitive chief of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ could give himself up before Baisakhi at the Akal Takht at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Takht Damdama Sahib in Bathinda, or the Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib in the Rupnagar region. Amritpal has been on the run since March 18 and has been frantically trying to get into Amritsar for the past 48 hours.
The Punjab Police have been chasing the Khalistani separatist since March 18. The chase forced Amritpal Singh to take shelter in at least four different states – Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. His family members have mysteriously vanished from their ancestral house in Jallupur Kheda. They allegedly spent the previous two days at the Golden Temple.
The development occurred a day after he made a video request to the head of ‘Akal Takht,’ the highest political institution of Sikhs, to summon a meeting of the ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ (congregation of Sikhs) on Baisakhi on April 14. Notably, he is said to have recorded the video in Uttar Pradesh and uploaded it from the United Kingdom.
Amritpal Singh has also attempted to enter Amritsar by using the vehicles of a ‘Jalandhar Dera’ (Sikh lodge) where he stayed. He arrived there on March 27 with the assistance of Papalpreet Singh, and they were lodging at the facility associated with ‘Takht Huzoor Sahib’ in Nanded, Maharashtra.
Both travelled to Hoshiarpur in an Innova car from there for an interview with an international channel. However, the counter-intelligence wing of the Punjab Police got wind of their plan.
The duo then fled in a Maruti Swift car, but the police arrested two Dera men who were accompanying Amritpal Singh in another car. The Innova car that Amritpal is said to have driven to Hoshiarpur had a bogus registration number, which was later discovered. Now, the police are searching for the Maruti Swift.
The Akal Takht’s Jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh, has asked Amritpal to surrender before the police and cooperate with the investigation in a video.
According to intel inputs, Amritpal has been trying to enter Amritsar for the past two days and has been confined to a 10 to 12 km radius after escaping from Hoshiarpur.
Having failed to trace Amritpal after a massive search operation, Punjab police have now deployed drones to trace the Khalistani sympathiser and his aide.
