Indian police have arrested Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh after searching for him for more than a month, in a move against the revival of an independent homeland in the state of Punjab bordering Pakistan.
Mr Singh, 30, had been on the run since last month after capturing national attention in February, when hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station in Ajnala, Punjab state, with wooden batons, swords and guns to demand the release of a jailed aide.
He was arrested in a Sikh temple in Rode village in Moga district, Punjab, under the National Security Act, which allows for those deemed a threat to national security to be detained without charge for up to a year, the police official said.
The rise of Amritpal Singh — who leads a group called Waris Punjab De (or the heirs of Punjab) — has revived talk of an independent Sikh homeland and stoked fears of a return to violence that killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and early 1990s during a Sikh insurgency.
A Sikh religious leader Jasbir Singh Rodde said Mr Singh surrendered after offering morning prayers at a Sikh shrine in Moga.
Police officer Sukhchain Singh Gill said police had surrounded the village on intelligence that Mr Singh was in the shrine.
"Relentless pressure built by the police over the past 35 days left Singh with no choice,'' Mr Gill told reporters.
He said the police didn't enter the shrine, but declined to confirm whether Mr Singh surrendered as claimed by his supporters.
Mr Singh was flown to Dibrugarh in India's north-east, where he will be detained until he is brought to court to face charges.
History of violent insurgency
Punjab suffered a bloody insurgency in the 1980s, which ultimately led to the killing of India's then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards at her official residence in New Delhi.
Her assassination in 1984 triggered bloody rioting by her Hindu supporters against Sikhs in northern India.
Ashwini Dubey — a lawyer in Punjab state — said Mr Singh's arrest would help police dismantle the separatist network and its supporters.
Tavleen Singh — a political commentator and former journalist who covered the Punjab insurgency in the 1980s — said: "The police took this man out, which is good, because had they gone into a gurdwara (Sikh shrine), and started shooting, you would have had a reaction from the general populous.
"The Sikhs happen to be very sensitive to gurdwaras being attacked."
Sikhs are a religious minority in India and say they are discriminated against by the majority Hindus.
More than 3,000 people were killed by extremists during the 1980s insurgency in the prosperous farming state. The insurgency was crushed by Indian forces by 1990.
Punjab borders India-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of supporting, training and arming insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies.
Police declared Mr Singh a fugitive and accused him and his aides of creating discord in the state.
They accused them of spreading disharmony among people, attempted murder, attacking police personnel and obstructing public servants' lawful discharge of duty.
Authorities have deployed thousands of paramilitary soldiers in the state and arrested nearly 100 of his supporters.
Mr Singh's wife was prevented from leaving India last week.
Demonstrations to protect Sikh rights
Very little was known about Mr Singh until he arrived in Punjab state in 2022 and began leading marches calling for the protection of rights for Sikhs, who account for about 1.7 per cent of India's population.
Mr Singh claims to draw inspiration from Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh militant leader accused by the Indian government of leading an armed insurgency for Khalistan in the 1980s.
Mr Bhindranwale and his supporters were killed in 1984 when the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine in the Sikh religion.
Mr Singh has styled himself after Mr Bhindranwale, with a long, flowing beard. He also dresses like Mr Bhindranwale.
Waris Punjab De — an organisation that was part of a massive campaign to mobilise farmers against controversial agriculture reforms being pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government — is led by Mr Singh.
The proposed reforms triggered a year of protests that began in 2020, as farmers — most of them Sikhs from Punjab state — camped on the outskirts of New Delhi, through a harsh winter and devastating COVID-19 surge.
Those protests ended after Mr Modi's government withdrew the legislation in November 2021.
Waris Punjab De was founded by Deep Sidhu, an Indian actor who died in 2022 in a traffic accident.
Mr Singh's speeches have become increasingly popular among supporters of the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India.
Officials see it — and affiliated groups — as a national security threat.
Even though the movement has waned over the years, it still has some support in Punjab and beyond — including in countries such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, which are home to a sizeable Sikh diaspora.
Last month, supporters of the movement pulled down the Indian flag at the country's high commission in London and smashed the building's windows in a show of anger against the move to arrest Singh.
India's Foreign Ministry denounced the incident and summoned the UK's deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it called a breach of security at the embassy in London.
The supporters of the Khalistan movement also vandalised the Indian Consulate in San Francisco in the United States.
ABC/wires
