In the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, the police have arrested three individuals, including a lawyer, for allegedly aiding Amritpal Singh, the chief of ‘Waris Punjab De’, who has been on the run since March 18. Two of the arrested individuals are reportedly from Jalandhar district, while the third belongs to Hoshiarpur’s Babak village.
While officials have remained silent over the arrests, sources have revealed that the individuals are in the custody of the crime investigation agency (CIA). Amritpal Singh and his associate-mentor Papalpreet Singh had escaped from Marnaiyan village on the night of March 28. Earlier on April 10, two brothers from Rajpur Bhaiyan village were arrested on suspicion of providing shelter to the fugitives and are currently in police remand.
Papalpreet Singh, who is considered to be a strategist of the outfit with close links to Pakistan’s ISI, was arrested from Hoshiarpur last week and has been booked under the National Security Act (NSA). Meanwhile, Amritpal Singh remains at large since the Punjab Police launched a massive crackdown against the Waris Punjab De and its members.
The crackdown on ‘Waris Punjab De’ began weeks after Amritpal and his supporters stormed the Ajnala police station near Amritsar to secure the release of an arrested associate. The episode had raised fears of the return of Khalistani militancy to the state that borders Pakistan.
In an effort to quell any such unrest, Papalpreet Singh was brought to Dibrugarh in Assam, over 2500 km away from the northern state, and lodged in the central jail along with seven others of the pro-Khalistan outfit on Tuesday last week. The arrests of individuals allegedly aiding Amritpal Singh further underline the Punjab Police’s determination to bring the fugitive to justice and ensure the state’s safety and security.
