Journalism of Courage
Five days after Punjab Police launched a massive crackdown on Dubai-returned, self-styled pro-Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh and his aides, Moga, once known for being a hotbed of radical activities, is again under the police scanner.
Of seven members of Amritpal’s Waris Punjab De (WPD) detained under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and sent to Dibrugarh jail in Assam, four are from this tiny district in the Malwa belt. The internet services in the district will remain suspended till Thursday noon.
The district is home to Rode, the ancestral village of slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, popularly called “Sant” by rural masses in the state. While Khalistani sentiment hardly resonates with Sikhs in modern-day Punjab, the rural folks from Rode and other Moga villages still idolise Bhindranwale and view him as “one of their own”.
Moga is also home to Buddh Singh Wala, the native village of extremist Gurjant Singh, the former chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force who allegedly assassinated some policemen after his grandfather was killed in extrajudicial killings in 1984. Wanted in several cases of assassination, Gurjant was killed in a police encounter.
Nearly 38 years after Bhindranwale died in Operation Blue Star in 1984 and Sant Khalsa Gurdwara was erected in his memory at Rode, Moga district is in the limelight once again, for WPD activities.
The four Amritpal aides arrested from Moga under the NSA are Bhagwant Singh alias Pardhan Mantri from Bajeke village, Kulwant Singh Rauke from Rauke Kalan village, Basant Singh from Daulatpura village and Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala. According to police sources, Kulwant Singh Rauke, Basant Singh and Bukkanwala were part of the 16-member core committee of WPD, which was founded by actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu and later dramatically taken over by Amritpal. Soon, Moga began hosting WPD’s crucial meetings and congregations.
Floated by Deep on September 30, 2021, in Chandigarh, the group was registered as Warris Panj-aab De Social and Welfare Society under the Societies Registration Act in Moga on December 15, 2021. However, after Deep’s death in a road accident on February 15, 2022, and Amritpal’s parachuting from Dubai to take over as WPD chief, differences emerged as the former’s family and a faction of his supporters were not in Amritpal’s favour. Deep’s brother Mandeep Singh Sidhu, an advocate in Ludhiana, and his supporters got a separate body registered as Waris Punjab De Social Welfare Society at Fatehgarh Sahib on July 4, 2022.
From Amritpal’s “dastaar bandi” ceremony as its head to Deep’s first death anniversary, WPD has held many of its congregations in Moga.
Bhindranwale’s village again shot into limelight on September 29, 2022, when Amritpal, dressed like the slain militant leader, officially took over as chief of WPD and his “dastaar bandi” ceremony was held in the presence of the former’s family members and other villagers. He also delivered an address near the gurdwara built in the slain militant’s memory, sending ripples across police and intelligence authorities about the arrival of “Bhindranwale 2.0”.
Bhindranwale’s family members, including his nephew Jasvir Singh Rode, attended the “dastaar bandi” while his elder brother, Harcharan Singh Rode, watched it live from the US. The family publicly supported Amritpal, who said in his address that he was “only Bhindranwale’s disciple and not trying to copy him”.
With several of Deep Sidhu’s supporters who later joined the Amritpal group hailing from Moga, the district became the venue of crucial meetings and congregations that WPD would organise and where Amritpal would incite youths to fight for panth di azaadi and khalsa raj.
One such crucial congregation was the first death anniversary gathering of Deep, held in slain Khalistan militant Gurjant Singh’s native Budh Singh Wala village on February 19. Even as Mandeep Singh Sidhu asserted that Amritpal had “hijacked” his brother’s organisation and was “misusing his name” to propagate Khalistan, he too attended the programme and Amritpal honoured him with a siropa there. “I did not go there to support Amritpal but to attend a programme that was held in my brother’s memory,” Mandeep said later.
According to Moga police sources, the four who were arrested under the NSA had joined WPD when Deep had floated it and eventually shifted to the Amritpal group after his death. Bukkanwala, Basant Singh and Kulwant Singh Rauke were among the core committee members of WPD. Bukkanwala’s furniture store in Duneke village was its first registered office. Basant Singh was an on-ground mobiliser who gathered support for Amritpal after Deep’s death. Bhagwant Singh alias Pardhan Mantri Bajeke, a social media influencer, had uploaded several videos issuing threats and using abusive language in favour of Amritpal, said police.
Moga SSP J Elanchezhian says: “Till now we have arrested four persons from Moga under the NSA for their involvement in WPD activities. The district is on alert, being the hotbed of radical activities.”
