The unsaid rule in Punjab that there cannot be a Bhindranwale-II was established yet again on April 23 with the arrest of self-styled radical preacher Amritpal Singh from Rode village in Moga district of Punjab.
Minutes after his arrest, he was taken to Dibrugarh jail in Assam by the Punjab police as he faces charges under the National Security Act that allows the arrested accused to be lodged in jail in another state.
The birth place of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had taken Amritpal to Rode where he wanted to give his last address before arrest. But, Amritpal failed to evoke the same response with neither the crowds swelling in support for any public speech nor a sympathy wave for the fugitive who had been on the run for a month now. The only similarity was the appearance- flowing whites and saffron turban.
When Bhindranwale spoke before his surrender in Mehta village in 1981, he asked the crowds gathered there not to indulge in violence. However, the wave of attacks that ensued soon after decried the rule of law and exposed the many mistakes that could have been avoided in Punjab.
After 32 years, the Amritpal operation was planned in a manner where there would minimum violence and maximum advantage in curbing any attempts to stoke separatist sentiments by Amritpal and his supporters. To that extent, the operation was carefully coordinated by the counter intelligence wing of Punjab police which laid emphasis on patience instead of using the might of the state to capture the fugitive.
The chase was long and daunting after Amritpal escaped the police dragnet in Jalandhar on March 18. The main accused in the Ajnala police station violence with six FIRs against him, Amritpal used a Mercedes, a motorised cart -with his associate Papalpreet Singh - and changed appearances and locations several times before his support base started waning and he started exploring options to leave the country.
From taking shelter in the house of a 60-year-old woman in Patiala, using a scooty, snatching mobiles, crossing into Haryana and tapping into religious sentiments of supporters who provided him shelter and food, Amritpal tried to evade arrest for a month till he was surrounded by the police on April 23.
Security sources said the fact that he moved without a mobile phone, used VPN to avoid digitial tracking in the mobile phones he used along the way demonstrated that he was using organised networks to find shelter every time he changed location.
The police chase went on in Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and border areas as intelligence agencies received inputs that he may try to sneak out of the Nepal border.
Throughout his domestic chase, the trans national networks of banned Khalistani networks of Sikh for Justice and Babbar Khalsa International have been active from foreign shores in United Kingdom, Canada, United States where his associates and handlers are learnt to be fishing in troubled waters. The nuisance created by the banned Khalistani outfits outside the country has been a huge challenge for the central and state police agencies who want to prevent any law and order problem within Punjab.
The choice to lose the perception battle during the Amritpal chase seems to have worked well for the Punjab police which restricted his exit as well as of his wife Kirandeep Kaur, a UK citizen, when she tried to leave the country. "Between the brain and the brawn, sometimes the brain is required more in counter intelligence operations,’’ said a senior state official.
With Aam Aadmi party government in Punjab on a sticky wicket after his flight and central agencies wanting quick results, the carefully crafted operation did not have many takers when it began but gathered steam and support of the centre very soon.
The central agencies and state governments were on board as the union home ministry monitored the developments closely. But the local police led the operation keeping in mind the sensitivities involved.
Sources said the human networks of Amritpal have been exposed during his month long chase and the police will track his journey to bust the remnants of the Amritpal module.
But there are several challenges ahead. The pro Amritpal supporters, however minuscule in numbers, can try and stoke unrest in Punjab; there are cross border terror groups already active in neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir; the pro-Khalistan supporters abroad will continue to spread misinformation and protests and the presence of Amritpal in jail will continue to keep the pot boiling for sometime.
The cases against Amritpal and his supporters have to be backed by solid evidence to be able to keep them behind bars. But, the key challenge for the police is to dig information on Amritpal’s handlers who had carefully crafted his image as a radical preacher to make him a poster boy of Khalistan overnight.