Khalistan sympathizer and fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh had set up a temporary ‘shooting range’ at his native village Jallupur Khera in Punjab’s Amritsar district, where he was training his aides for setting up his militia, the ‘Anandpur Khalsa Fauj’ (AKF). The Waris Punjab De’ chief had been targeting drug addicts and rogue ex-servicemen to help him build a gang that could be easily transformed into a terrorist outfit, according to police.

According to Punjab police, at the temporary shooting range set up on the banks of a river in Amritpal’s native village, the Khalistani leader was training youth in handling and loading firearms to recruit them in the AKF.

The development came after police scanned the mobile phone recovered from Amritpal’s gunman Tejinder Singh Gill aka Gorkha Baba, who was arrested by the Khanna police on Thursday morning.

Amritpal's 'Anandpur Khalsa Fauj"

• Giving details of his journey and plans that he was likely to execute at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), police officials said Amritpal Singh, upon his return from Dubai, started a drug de-addiction center at his village Jallupur Kehra in Punjab’s Amritsar district.
• In a simultaneous operation, he along with his men started looking for ex-servicemen who had been retired from the Army for bad behaviour so that they could be used for imparting arms training.
• Immediately after his return last year and he taking over the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit after the death of actor-activist Deep Sidhu, Amritpal Singh had a cover of two private security officers, and by early this year, the number had gone up to 16.
• The surprising part was that seven of his personal security officers were youngsters, who had joined his drug de-addiction center for rehabilitation, the officials said, adding that during their stay there for treatment they had been imparted training.
• The youngsters, admitted at the de-addiction center, were brainwashed and pushed towards gun culture and also incited to choose the path of slain terrorist Dilawar Singh, who blew himself up and killed former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, they said.
• Targeting rogue ex-servicemen was beneficial for the pro-Khalistan preacher as they already had arms licences which could help his organization to evade the law, the officials said.
• Two such ex-servicemen, identified as Varinder Singh of the 19 Sikhs and Talwinder Singh of the 3rd Armoured Punjab, were instrumental in providing arms training to the youngsters, who were addicted to drugs, they said.
• The licences were canceled by the administration subsequently and Varinder Singh was arrested while Taliwinder Singh is still at large, the officials said.
• According to Inspector general of police (IGP-headquarters) Sukhchain Singh Gill, pictures and videos recovered from Baba’s phone indicate Amritpal and his group’s plan to foment trouble in Punjab.
• “Police have also received holograms of the AKF from Baba. The videos are enough to show how big a threat they would have become for the national security and peace and harmony of Punjab,” said the IGP headquarters.
• The format and design of the “Khalistani dollar” and videos of youths learning the use of hi-tech guns have also been found in Baba’s phone, according to police
• Security agencies had raised a red flag after intelligence inputs suggested that Amritpal Singh was using drug de-addiction centers and a gurudwara for stocking weapons besides preparing youngsters to carry out suicide attacks.
• The radical leader is alleged to have also been involved in the murder of Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri last year.
• A thick dossier prepared with inputs from various security agencies claimed that Amritpal Singh was mainly engaged in preparing the youngsters to become ‘Khadkoos’ (terrorists).
• During the investigation, arms, and ammunition meant for the so-called Anandpur Khalsa Fauj, along with uniforms and jackets were also seized.
• As per the police, the weapons and ammunition seized from the radical Sikh preacher’s car also bore ‘AKF’ markings on it.
• The officials said weapons were being stored in several de-addiction centers run by ‘Waris Punjab De’ as well as at the Jallupur Khera Gurdwara in Amritsar.

The preacher is on the run after the Punjab Police arrested several of his supporters in a major crackdown that began weeks after the storming of the Ajnala police station near Amritsar to secure the release of an arrested associate. The episode had raised fears over the possibility of the return of Khalistani militancy to the state that borders Pakistan.

After Haryana, Amritpal Singh's Next Stop Could Be Delhi

 New Delhi: Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, who is still on the run, may be headed to Delhi after his last location was traced to neighboring Haryana, sources have said.

Sources say the police have stepped up vigil across the national capital after Amritpal sneaked out of Punjab and was last spotted in Haryana.

An alert has been issued in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udham Singh Nagar districts of Uttarakhand as well as in view of the possibility of 'Waris Punjab De' chief Amritpal Singh entering the state.

Officials yesterday said Amritpal Singh was in Haryana's Kurushetra a day after fleeing the police in Punjab. A woman who sheltered him and his associate Papalpreet Singh at her home at Shahabad on Sunday has been arrested.

A video that surfaced yesterday shows the wanted separatist carrying an umbrella to hide his face, leaving the shahabad house of Baljeet Kaur in a white shirt and dark blue jeans. The timestamp on the footage shows Monday.

The Punjab police have also arrested a man who was allegedly part of the private security setup of Amritpal Singh.

Tejinder Singh Gill, a resident of Mangewal village in the Khanna area of Ludhiana district, was tasked with the self-styled preacher's security.

The massive crackdown against Amritpal Singh comes a month after the separatist and his supporters broke into a police station with swords and guns for the release of one of his aides. Six policemen were injured in the clash.

Amritpal Singh, however, gave the police a slip when his cavalcade was intercepted in the Jalandhar district on Saturday. He has been on the run since.

The 'top secret' action was a coordinated effort between Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Punjab, the Centre, and BJP-governed Assam, say officials. Sources said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had discussed the plan to arrest Amritpal Singh with Home Minister Amit Shah in a meeting on March 2.

Home Ministry sources said Amritpal Singh was planning to launch a statewide procession to baptize the youth to carry out suicide attacks. The radical preacher was using de-addiction centers to stockpile weapons illegally sourced from Pakistan, they said. 

Seven of his top arrested aides have been flown to Dibrugarh in upper Assam. They are being kept in the high-security Dibrugarh Central Jail.

Who is Baljit Kaur, arrested for harbouring fugitive Amritpal Singh?

A 30-year-old woman, Baljit Kaur, was arrested in Kurukshetra on Thursday by Punjab police in a joint operation with Haryana police on charges of harbouring fugitive and Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh.

The investigating agencies, corroborated through footage from several CCTVs, learned that Amritpal and his close aide Pappalpreet Singh reached Kaur’s residence on the night of March 19 and stayed at her under-construction house.

An MBA graduate from Hisar, Kaur had told the investigating agencies that on the night when Papalpreet and Amritpal reached her house, the latter was carrying a gun. “She could not identify the make, whether it was a pistol or a mauser,” a highly placed source told The Indian Express.

The investigating agencies discovered through Kaur’s phone and social media handles that she was pursuing a course in “radical literature”.

The investigating agencies also found that Kaur did a few social media videos on historical gurdwaras for Papalpreet, who subsequently shared them on his social media platforms.

Inspector General of Police (Punjab) Sukhchain Singh Gill today told the media that Kaur has been arrested and a team of Punjab police was bringing her to Punjab for further questioning.

Sources disclosed that it was her brother Harvinder, who works in the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s Office at Shahbad, who first alerted the police on Wednesday about Amritpal’s arrival. However, the investigating agencies did not comment anything on this and only maintained that “no innocent shall be arrested in the ongoing arrests of Amritpal’s supporters”.

Sources added that Amritpal and Papalpreet spent the entire night of March 19 at Kaur’s residence, and the two also used her mobile phone to make a few calls.

Kaur has also told the officials who interrogated her that she overheard Papalpreet and Amritpal’s plan to escape to Uttarakhand. The investigating agencies are now scrutinizing the call records to ascertain their whereabouts.

Amritpal Singh kept his wife Kirandeep Kaur in captivity, and used to beat her

Amritpal Singh is a wife-beater and may have a second wife in Thailand, an intelligence report said, as reported by the news agency ANI.

An intelligence report on Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh has claimed that the radical Sikh leader is no devout Sikh and has been leading a lavish lifestyle in Dubai with frequent trips to Thailand, news agency ANI reported. The report said Amritpal Singh used to beat Kirandeep Kaur whom he married in February this year. Kirandeep was kept in captivity, the report said doubting the Khalistan sympathizer's relationship with other women.

Kirandeep Kaur has been questioned by the police reportedly in connection with the foreign funds that Waris Punjab De received. On March 18, the Punjab Police launched a massive crackdown on the organization and its chief. Several arrests have been made while Amritpal Singh remains absconding.

What the intelligence report on Amritpal Singh reveals:

• Amritpal Singh is a wife-beater and Kirandeep Kaur was kept in captivity. The duo got married in a modest ceremony in February. Though Kirandeep's family is from Punjab, they settled in UK and Kirandeep is a UK citizen.
• Amritpal Singh does not talk about his past fearing possible damage to the image he has been building. Before coming to India, Amritpal Singh was a truck driver in Dubai until 2022 when he came to India to become the chief of Waris Punjab De, Deep Sidhu's organization. Then he styled himself like Bhindranwale and his followers started calling him Bhindranwale 2.0
• Amritpal may have some Thailand connection, the report deliberated as he traveled to Thailand several times. He might have indulged in prostitution in Thailand or may have a second wife in Thailand, the report raised questions.
• When Amritpal Singh was abroad, he was not an Amritdhari Sikh and did not follow Sikh religious tenets, the report said.
• In Dubai, Amritpal Singh was closely involved with drug dealers, the report said adding that he came to close contact with Jaswant Singh, a dealer, whose brother operates from Pakistan.

The report shedding Amritpal Singh's life before he became the self-styled radical preacher comes as his purported WhatsApp chats and messages have been leaked revealing that he was seeking casual relationships with single and married women.

References:

news18.com
indianexpress.com
 ndtv.com
hindustantimes.com