Indian police have arrested Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh after searching for him for more than a month, a state police official says of an operation against the revival of an independent Sikh homeland in the state of Punjab bordering Pakistan, reports Al Jazeera.
“Amritpal Singh has been arrested from the Rode village in Moga district, Punjab, on the basis of specific intelligence,” Sukhchain Singh Gill, a top official in the Punjab police said on Sunday.
The rise of Singh – a preacher in the northwestern state of Punjab, where Sikhs are the majority – has revived talk of such a homeland and stoked fears of a return to violence of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Singh and supporters armed with swords, knives and guns raided a police station in February after one of the preacher’s aides was arrested for assault and attempted kidnapping.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
