Radical separatist Amritpal Singh was trying to build a new brand of Khalistani separatist identity in Punjab by creating a false sense of alienation and discontentment, especially among the youth, said intelligence officials a day after his arrest from Rode village in Moga district of Punjab.
Agencies view Amritpal’s entry into Punjab as part of a larger conspiracy by Pakistan ISI, in collusion with Khalistani elements in the United Kingdom, whose imprints have been found during the probe against members of Waris Punjab De in the last two months.
“The Europe and US networks of the Khalistan outfits were apparently used as a front by the Pak ISI to give it an organic face and create a false narrative to fuel separatism,” said intelligence officials.
After Amritpal has been sent to Dibrugarh jail where he is detained under the National Security Act, central agencies are likely to question him on his suspected links with Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Sikhs for Justice, which came out in open support of Waris Punjab De, the outfit captured by Amritpal after the sudden death of Deep Sidhu last year. Nearly fifty WPD members are behind bars, ten of them booked under the NSA and are presently lodged in Dibrugarh jail along with Amritpal.
But, neither the traditional Khalistani narrative of the banned outfits nor their existing support base was enough for Amritpal’s handlers, who were eyeing to capture the political space in Punjab and create a political-social support base to revive militancy.
This is a major concern for the central agencies which are likely to quiz him about his alleged links with UK-based Aavar Singh Khanda, allegedly a close associate of militant Jagtar Singh Tara and other overseas militants.
The Khalistani network of Amritpal allegedly sprouted after he was spotted by the Rode brothers-Jaswant Rode in Dubai where Amritpal was taking care of his father’s truck business. Jaswant is brother of Lakhbir Singh Rode of the banned Khalistan Liberation Force and International Sikh Youth Federation in Pakistan. Sources said his close links with the Khalistani outfits, brought him under the radar of UK-based BKI leaders sponsored by Pakistan’s ISI, who decided to groom him, claimed police sources. The well-oiled drug smuggling and gun-running cross-border networks that were tapping vulnerable youngsters in Punjab rallied behind Amritpal at once.
Security officials said the seeds of Amritpal's radicalisation were sown in Dubai and he is learnt to have undergone several months of training in use of gadgets and gathered technical expertise before he returned to Punjab to become the poster boy of Khalistan. A trip to Georgia before he entered the country has come under the scanner of intelligence agencies.
Central and state police agencies are likely to question Amritpal on his Dubai links, connection with Rode brothers, his wife Kirandeep Kaur’s activities and examine the suspected BKI networks and financial flows into WPD under his charge. Incidentally, Kirandeep Kaur is a UK citizen who was residing in London when she came in contact with Amritpal. In February, she took a flight to marry Amritpal in his native village in Jallupur Khera in Punjab. The investigating agencies suspect she may have been used as an overseas link to the Amritpal module that was orchestrating the pro-Khalistan narrative in Punjab. While Kirandeep has denied all allegations against her husband and herself, the sleuths are likely to explore whether any funds were routed through her to support Amritpal's activities in the country.
Amritpal is the main accused in the Ajnala police station violence and has six FIRs against him. After Amritpal escaped arrest in Jalandhar on March 18, he made plans to flee to Nepal using the porous border but the tight security arrangements and timely intelligence did not allow him to leave the country. Amritpal tried to evade arrest for as long as possible and security sources said the fact that he moved without a mobile phone, using VPN to avoid digital tracking in the phones he used along the way, demonstrated that he was well-trained and used organised networks as he changed locations from Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh besides attempts to sneak out of the Nepal border. The central agencies will investigate whether he had transited through Delhi and taken shelter in Rajasthan too.