Amritpal Singh: The preacher who stirred up trouble

No one knew about the Khalistani separatist a year ago; then he was everywhere in Punjab, openly challenging the might of the State with his extremism

Right after he went on the run following a police crackdown, old pictures of Amritpal Singh, the self-styled pro-Khalistan preacher, surfaced on social media.

In those images, the 30-year-old could be seen in a T-shirt; he had short hair and a well-trimmed beard. He looked like a hunk; someone who could have walked the ramp.

It was hard to believe that this very normal-looking guy, who was an unknown entity in Punjab till about a year back, had managed to terrorise an entire state with his extremist statements and contempt for the Constitution.

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Amritpal brought back traumatic memories of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the spectre of Khalistan into Punjab that had been scarred by a decade-long insurgency in the 80s.

Police say that Amritpal’s purported link with the ISI, his organisation’s sinister designs to set up an armed force and incriminating evidence of “Khalistani currency, emblem and flag” were all part of attempts to destabilise the State.

All this tumult makes him and his rise as a bearded figure with robes a fascinating case study.

Early days

Amritpal was born in Amritsar’s Jallupur Khera village in 1993, nine years after separatist leader Bhindranwale, whom he idolises, was killed in the Operation Blue Star launched by the Indira Gandhi government in 1984.

In 2012, he left India and joined his uncle’s transport business and reportedly worked as a truck driver in Dubai. But in 2022, Amritpal suddenly returned home and became an Amritdhari Sikh (those who have undergone the holy initiation ceremony).

Fluent in Hindi, English and Punjabi, Amritpal’s first attempt into entering the political scene in Punjab was when he latched onto Waris Punjab De, which was founded by actor-activist Deep Sidhu who was killed in a road accident last year in February. (Sidhu hit the headlines when he was arrested for putting up a Khalistan flag at the Red Fort in Delhi during the farmers’ protests).

There is much that remains unclear in this takeover but once anointed the head of the outfit, Amritpal started making his moves. He started talking about the drug problem and began openly challenging the law of the land.

While plotting his rise, he found time to marry 29-year-old UK-based NRI Kirandeep Kaur in Amritsar in February 2023 and, according to one report, was quoted as saying that she would return to Punjab.

Then came the Ajnala incident.

On February 23, a huge mob belonging to Waris Punjab De amassed in front of a police station in the town of Ajnala demanding the release of a member of their organisation. In their hands were sticks and swords; some even had guns. In front of them were a few barricades and a bunch of anxious, outnumbered cops.

After some tense eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, the mob broke through the barricades and occupied the police station, retreating only after securing an assurance that their man, who had been arrested on some charges, would be released.

And the next day, the person for whom they had laid siege to a police station, walked out of the jail with a bag hanging from his shoulder. A job well done.

This hard-to-believe incident, orchestrated by Amritpal, finally managed to wake up the Punjab Police and the Bhagwant Mann government from their collective stupor to his threat.

After the episode, the media courted him and he didn’t disappoint as he made one outlandish statement after another: he said he doesn’t accept the Constitution; that the Sikhs were suffering and can’t live in India; and, in another, wondered what was wrong with his demand if the Hindutva crowd wanted Hindu Rashtra.

He spoke as if he was the spokesman for all Sikhs, which was not true.

“Amritpal is a villain of the Sikh community. Barring a small faction, his agenda does not find support within the Sikh community. Sikhs in Punjab have their unaddressed issues, but the Khalistan narrative remains unfounded,” political commentator Chanchal Manohar Singh told DH.

Constantly surrounded by bodyguards with firearms and swords, Amritpal would move around in a cavalcade of swanky cars.

The most recent reports suggest that Amritpal was allegedly backing the ‘Anandpur Khalistan Fauz’ (AKF) that was training his supporters in firearms.

Amritpal is now absconding after somehow managing to evade the dragnet of the cops, an episode which was termed as an “intelligence failure” by the Punjab and Haryana HC. Chanchal Manohar said there is an “apprehension among people that Amritpal is in police hands and not on the run”.

The extremist preacher is facing a raft of cases, including under the National Security Act.

Amritpal’s swift rise, which caught everyone by surprise, is a warning sign for Punjab that is reeling from a massive drug and unemployment problem.

It shows that Khalistan is not a closed chapter yet. The state will have to be vigilant and keep an eye on charismatic troublemakers.

(The writer is a Chandigarh-based journalist)