Police teams also recover some incriminating material including holograms of Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF) and weapon training videos from the possession of an associate of Amritpal Singh
Our Bureau
Jalandhar/New Delhi
Punjab’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill on Thursday said that a total of 207 persons have been arrested for disturbing peace and harmony in the state, of which, 30 have been found in substantive criminal activities, while, remaining are under preventive arrest.
“Police teams are doing thorough screening of all the arrested persons and soon they will be released from police custody,” he said. The IGP said that this operation was carried out on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann with an aim to save the innocent youth of Punjab from playing into the hands 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 Sukhchain Singh Gill said that the Punjab Police in a joint operation with Haryana Police have arrested a woman identified as Baljeet Kaur for harboring 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.
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.
According to sources, supporters and associates of Amritpal Singh were shifted out of Punjab after Central Intelligence agencies raised concerns over possible jailbreak and repeat of the Ajnala incident.
Thousands of Amritpal’s supporters had entered the Ajnala police station in Amritsar on February 23 this year to free a member, who had been arrested in an abduction case. A source in Intelligence agencies has confirmed that after they had a meeting with state police officers and shared their intelligence report on arrested ‘Waris Punjab De’ (WPD) associates under the National Security Act (NSA) and recommended shifting them out of Punjab.
Associates of Amritpal Singh have been shifted to the Dibrugarh jail in Assam due to security reasons. The report said that the arrested persons would have indulged in jailbreak, had they been put in jail in Punjab. “They would have radicalized other jailed criminals and would have associated them in Anandpur Khalsa Fauj/AKF,” the report said.
It further read that they would have created a law-and-order situation by mobilizing support against the arrest as seen in the Ajnala incident. Either they would have run their criminal activities from within the jail in Punjab.
The report read that the arrested persons were charged under NSA because they are using youth for violence and promoting gun culture by naming his private militia as Anandpur Khalsa Fauj/AKF, a threat to national integrity by openly declaring that they do not believe in State and defying orders of Punjab Government not to display weapons in open, beating youth so-called drug de-addiction centres who did not toe the line of WPD etc.
“Had action not been taken under NSA, goons of Waris Punjab De would have repeated such incidents as they did not believe in the majesty of the law. Their links with proscribed outfit SFJ (Sikhs for Justice) who have now come in open support of WPD,” it said.
In the Ajnala incident, the supporters of Amritpal brandished swords and high-caliber firearms and threatened the police with dire consequences if they did not release Lovepreet Toofan.
The supporters, brandishing swords and guns, broke through police barricades erected outside the Ajnala police station.
