Village of Amritpal’s in-laws in shock; residents say he should have surrendered

“We were quite proud that our village’s daughter got married to him (Amritpal Singh) as he was working against drugs and was involved in teaching the ‘Maryada’ of Sikh religion. But now after seeing this footage, we came to know what a coward he had been – he discarded his Nihang Singh dress, his ‘kirpan’ and escaped. He should have rather surrendered,” said an old woman in the village.

Though the family of the girl had migrated to England several decades ago, they come here rarely, hardly once in some five years. The girl’s family members don’t mix much with the villagers except with a few families that are close to them. The family has a respectable single-story house in the middle of the village and has some farmland given on contract. A caretaker was present but he did not open the gate.

“They did not reveal about the marriage of their daughter. We came to know about it only from the newspapers,” another villager said, adding that the girl had perhaps visited the village for her marriage only or maybe once in her childhood.

While the sarpanch of the village did not open the door of his house, someone from inside was heard saying, “Please leave, we would not like to talk to the media about this incident.”

Another villager said that though he has never seen Amritpal Singh before and after his marriage in the village, his children told him that the self-styled Sikh preacher had made a brief visit to the village after his marriage.

Villagers also said that though they do not speak anything against the girl (Kirandeep Kaur) and the “jamai” (son-in-law – Amritpal Singh) of the village, the viral videos of ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief fleeing on a bike say a lot about him.

“My son was quite impressed with him (Amritpal Singh) and told me that he too wants to become a Nihang Singh, but I just asked him to focus on his studies first as he is in 10+2,” a woman from the village said, adding that “since yesterday he (son) has been asking me that why did he (Amritpal Singh) run away”. He (Amritpal Singh) has brought a bad name to the village, she added.