Amritpal Singh aide Lovepreet released; mob used Guru Granth Sahib as shield: DGP

Officials in the security establishment said the police did not anticipate the demonstrators to use the Palki Sahib of Sri Guru Granth Sahib as a shield to break the barricade. Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav Friday said, “The demonstration was permitted… (but) under the cover of Palki Sahib of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji, police were attacked in a cowardly manner.” This left six personnel injured.

“Police acted with utmost restraint due to the maryada of Guru Granth Sahib and preserved it. Had police opened fire, it would have led to more issues. We have acted with restraint on account of the presence of the holy Guru Granth Sahib,” Yadav said.

However, the events of February 23, and the run-up to it, reveal that the police had little intelligence about the strength of demonstrators – mostly young supporters of Amritlal – as they set off in a motorcade from his Jallupur village to Ajnala.

While police had used their traditional crowd-management techniques and even detained some of the supporters, these measures fell short as the crowd overpowered the barricades throughout the 60-km route. They also pushed their way through the last barricade and stormed inside the Ajnala police station.

It all began with an FIR filed on February 16 at the Ajnala police station. The FIR named Amritpal Singh and five others and booked them under sections related to kidnapping, snatching and voluntarily causing hurt.

Waris Punjab De followers enter Ajnala police station near Amritsar, Thursday. (Express Photo: Rana Simranjit Singh)

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Varinder Singh, a Sikh preacher and former supporter of Amritpal from Salempur village in Ropar district, who alleged that he was kidnapped when he arrived in Ajnala at the headquarters of the Damdami Taksal Ajnala, a sect run by Amreek Singh Ajnala, and was allegedly tortured by Amritpal’s supporters before being released. Amritpal has had several run-ins in the past with Ajnala.

The Dubai-returned Amritpal had made a dramatic emergence on the scene on September 29 last year, when he turned up at Rode village of Moga district, the ancestral village of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and took over as head of ‘Waris Punjab De’, a “social” outfit floated by lawyer-actor-turned-activist Sandeep Singh alias Deep Sidhu on September 30, 2021, ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections. The ‘Dastaar bandi’ ceremony to mark the occasion was witnessed by thousands who raised pro-Khalistan slogans.

Since then, he has made several provocative statements, including open calls to the youth to remain ready for “sacrifice” and warning of “reactionary violence”. Sources said that while these statements made the Punjab government and police uncomfortable, they tread cautiously.

The latest case, prompted by his rivalry with the Ajnala group, and the increasing criticism Amritpal was facing from within the community for his pro-Khalistan speeches, however, gave the police just the opportunity it was waiting for to act against the radical leader.

A day after the FIR was filed, the Amritsar rural police conducted raids on the houses of Amritpal’s supporters, after which he sent out a call to his supporters to reach Ajnala police station. However, he later dropped the plan and told his supporters that their next course of action would be decided at Budh Singh Wala village at Moga on February 19, on the death anniversary of Deep Sidhu. However, with the turnout not meeting his expectations, Amritpal allegedly told the gathering that police have assured him that the issue would be solved by February 22.

While Amritpal was named accused No. 1 in the case filed on February 16, police didn’t arrest him and instead arrested two people not named in the FIR. While one of them was released after a preliminary investigation, the second, Lovepreet Singh, was sent to judicial custody after a day’s police remand. Sources say that by not arresting him while keeping his name in the FIR, police may have wanted to keep the sword dangling over his head.

Meanwhile, Amritpal’s rivals – mostly other pro-Khalistan outfits that saw this latest entrant as a threat – started mocking him, mostly on social media, for his alleged U-turns on the case registered against him and his men. With no sign of the police blinking and faced with increasing criticism from his rivals, Amritpal asked his supporters to reach Ajnala on February 23.