India: Fugitive Sikh Separatist Arrested, Ending Manhunt
On Sunday, Amritpal Singh, a Sikh separatist preacher who has been on the run since March 18, was arrested in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
Facts
- On Sunday, Amritpal Singh, a Sikh separatist preacher who has been on the run since March 18, was arrested in the northern Indian state of Punjab.1
- While Singh claimed he had courted arrest, police said he surrendered after being surrounded in Rode village in the state's Moga district and was subsequently taken to Dibrugarh Central Jail in the northeastern state of Assam, where several of his aides are already being held.2
- Singh’s arrest comes three days after his wife Kirandeep Kaur — who was under surveillance by Punjab Police — was detained at Amritsar airport while she was trying to board a flight to London.3
- Singh is a popular leader within the separatist Khalistan movement, which demands the creation of a sovereign Sikh nation for followers of the Sikh religion. The movement has been outlawed in India and is considered a deadly national security threat by the nation's government.4
- Accused of attempted murder, obstruction of law enforcement, and creating disharmony in society, Singh has been arrested under the stringent National Security Act, which allows authorities to detain citizens without charge for up to a year.5
- In March, Indian authorities detained hundreds of Singh’s supporters and shut down internet access for approximately 30M people in Punjab — one of the country’s most extensive blackouts in recent years.6
Sources: 1The Times of India, 2Tribune India News Service, 3India Today, 4CNN, 5Al Jazeera, and 6ITN.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by The Times of India. Amritpal Singh is backed by Pakistan-based Islamist groups and Kashmir-centric terrorist groups. It’s no secret that the Khalistan agenda has primarily been kept alive from foreign soil by Sikh hardliners attempting to revive insurgency in Punjab — India’s only Sikh-majority state — with a massive financial push. The Indian government must come down heavily on all anti-national elements.
- Narrative B, as provided by The Wire. Traditional political parties in Punjab have failed to solve long-standing socio-economic crises such as unemployment and drug addiction. The erosion of faith within political parties, and not Amritpal Singh, has revived the demand for a larger religious and social transformation in Punjab. However, Amritpal’s radical posturing and the recent increase in activities of pro-Khalistani forces reflect a dangerous trend that may once again destabilize the state and the country.
- Narrative C, as provided by Time. Sikhs have faced increasing discrimination in India, especially with the growth of Hindu nationalism. The current treatment of Sikhs in Punjab is nearly identical to that which preceded the 1984 genocide — no wonder the demand for Khalistan has spread over the Sikh diaspora. The longer governments worldwide continue to let India treat a minority community oppressively, the more fervent Sikh protests are likely to become.
