An warning has been issued in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udhamsinghnagar districts as a precaution due to the potential of pro-Khalisthan Amritpal Singh entering the state, according to the state’s Director General of Police Ashok Kumar.
“An alert has been issued in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udhamsinghnagar districts of the state as a precaution in view of the possibility of pro-Khalisthan Amritpal Singh entering the state,” the DGP told ANI.
He stated that police are doing extensive checks on the boundaries of all three districts as well as in other places. Importantly, in the 1990s, terrorism struck all three areas of the state, he noted.
On Thursday, Punjab’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill, stated that a total of 207 people had been arrested for disturbing peace and harmony in the state, 30 of whom were found to be engaged in substantive criminal activities, while the remainder were placed under preventive arrest.
“Police teams are doing a thorough screening of all the arrested persons and soon they will be released from police custody,” he said.
According to the IGP, this operation was carried out on the orders of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in order to protect Punjab’s innocent young from falling into the clutches of Anti-National Forces.
“Punjab Police have clear instructions from the Chief Minister not to harass any innocent person during the ongoing operation. Police teams have even not harassed the family members of Amritpal Singh,” he said.
Divulging more details, IGP Gill said that the “Punjab Police in a joint operation with Haryana Police have arrested a woman identified as Baljeet Kaur for harbouring Amritpal Singh and his aide Pappalpreet Singh at her home in Kurukshetra, Haryana on March 19. Accused Baljit Kaur revealed that Pappalpreet was in touch with her for the last two and a half years,” he said.
Sukhchain Singh Gill reported that the Waris Punjab De chief’s last whereabouts was in Haryana, a crucial breakthrough in the continuing quest for fugitive pro-Khalistan leader and extreme preacher Amritpal Singh.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh on Thursday, the IGP said, “We are still actively searching for Amritpal Singh and have come to know that its last location was in Haryana. We have taken a woman named Baljeet Kaur into custody. Amritpal stayed at this woman’s house in Kurukshetra (Haryana) and the Waris Punjab De chief and his close aide had been in touch with her for the last two-and-a-half years.”
According to the IGP, during interrogation, Baljeet Kaur said that both Amritpal and his top assistant, Papalpreet Singh, stayed at her residence on March 19.
“We arrested Baljeet Kaur with the help of Haryana Police. She disclosed during interrogation that on the night of March 19, both Papalpreet Singh and Amritpal had put up at her place. She said she had Papalpreet for more than the last couple of years and he had stayed at her house on several occasions,” the IGP said.
“After staying the night, they moved out of there (her house) the next day. We are examining the CCTV footage and are hopeful of arresting Amritpal soon,” he added.
According to the Punjab IGP, Amritpal and his assistant changed their two-wheeler at a gurdwara in Sehowal village in Jalandhar and attempted to cross a river by boat.
“Our team continues to be in his trail. We are examining CCTV footage retrieved from several locations in a bid to trace his whereabouts. They changed their two-wheeler at a gurdwara at Sehowal village and tried to get a boat to cross the river. However, they failed to get one and eventually used an overbridge to get across the river,” the IGP added.
“After roaming around in another two-wheeler, they hired an auto-rickshaw. After this, they were located at Kurukshetra. Gurpej (one of the four men arrested for allegedly helping Amritpal escape), who is currently in our custody, told us about another woman, apart from Baljeet Kaur, who he may turn to for refuge,” the IGP added.
He said that, during the ongoing operation,” Khanna Police have also another Amritpal’s close associate identified as Tejinder Singh Gill alias Gorkha Baba (42) of village Mangewal in Khanna. Police teams have also recovered some incriminating material including holograms of Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) and weapon training videos, from his possession. An FIR on March 22 has been registered under sections 188 and 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 27 of the Arms Act at Police Station Malaud in Khanna,” the IGP said.
