After a month of pursuits, Indian police on Sunday arrested a Sikh separatist leader who revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland and the secession of India's northern Punjab state, which has a history of violent insurgency.
A police official in the Indian state of Punjab said Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh had been arrested by state police after searching for him for more than a month, in a move against the establishment of an independent homeland in the state bordering Pakistan.
Singh, 30, is a Sikh preacher in the northwestern Sikh state of Punjab, where Sikhs are in the majority, and his rise to prominence is due to his revival of talk of an independent Sikh homeland and his fears of a return to violence that killed tens of thousands in the eighties and early nineties during a Sikh rebellion.
"Amritbal Singh was arrested in Rud village in Muja district of Punjab 'based on specific intelligence,' and the official explained that he was arrested at a Sikh temple in the village under the National Security Act, which allows those deemed a threat to national security to be held without charge for up to a year," a senior Punjab police official told reporters.
He said he would be taken to Dibrugarh in Assam where some of his accomplices are already in prison, but Indian police gave no further details but appealed to people to maintain peace and harmony.
The arrest of Singh, who leads a group called Waris Punjab Di (heirs of Punjab), comes after he and hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station in the town of Agnala, Punjab state, with swords and firearms, demanding the release of one of his aides last February, and the Indian newspaper "Hindustan Times" reported that Singh had been on the run since that time.
Indian police accuse Singh and his aides of stirring up discord in the state by spreading discord among the people, attempting to murder, attacking police officers and obstructing the performance of duty by public officials.