Two men have been arrested for allegedly harbouring Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh, who has been on the run after police launched a crackdown against him last month, officials said on April 15.
The arrested men have been identified as Rajdeep Singh of Babak village in Hoshiarpur district and Sarbjit Singh of Jalandhar district, the police said.
Both Rajdeep Singh and Sarbjit Singh were produced before the duty magistrate on Friday night and sent to one-day police remand.
On March 18, the Punjab Police launched a crackdown against Amritpal Singh and members of his pro-Khalistan outfit ‘Waris Punjab De’.
The Khalistan sympathiser, who is yet to be nabbed, escaped from police in the Jalandhar on March 18, switching vehicles and changing his appearance.
Intelligence inputs suggest that Amritpal Singh might have slipped to Rajasthan, which shares borders with Punjab. Based on the inputs, a secret search operation has been launched.
Earlier on April 1o, Papalpreet Singh, a close aide of fugitive Amritpal Singh was arrested by Punjab Police. According to reports, the Punjab police arrested Papalpreet Singh from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, where he was spotted casually roaming around in the compound of Gurdwara Sahib and connecting link roads.
Papalpreet Singh is believed to be the most trusted aide of Amritpal Singh with ISI links. He mentored Amritpal as he took over the reins of Waris Punjab De after Deep Sidhu’s death. Papalpreet was believed to be the mastermind of their escape.
By profession, Papalpreet is a journalist based out of Amritsar who runs the website “Punjab Shield”, which is essentially a Khalistani propaganda site.
Papalpreet has been advising Amritpal on various issues. The first photos of Papalpreet were seen him driving a motorcycle with Amritpal riding pillion as they managed to escape. Papalpreet Singh was taking instructions from the ISI to raise the bogey of Khalistan in Punjab, officials said. It was on Papalpreet’s instruction that Amritpal changed his appearance during their escape.
After Papalpreet Singh’s arrest wanted posters of Amritpal were pasted at Batala railway station in Punjab’s Gurdaspur on April 12.
The poster reads, “Whosoever has any information about him (Amritpal) can share it on the mobile numbers given below.
Appropriate reward will be given on providing the information”. The poster also mentioned that the informer’s name would be kept confidential.
