GUWAHATI: Waris-de-Punjab Amritpal Singh’s mother was arrested on Sunday ahead of a march planned to demand that the radical Sikh preacher be moved from Dibrugarh jail in Assam to a prison in Punjab.
The incident occurred just a day before the ‘Chetna March’ which was supposed to start from Takht Damdama Sahin in Bathinda on April 8.
Balwainder Kaur, Amritpal’s mother, has been remanded to judicial custody, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police Alam Vijay Singh.
Singh mentioned that it was a preventive arrest but declined to provide further information. Police stated that Sukhchain Singh, Amritpal’s uncle, along with three others has also been detained.
Kaur and relatives of other detainees had been on a hunger strike since February 22, near the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Earlier, she had stated that they would persist with the hunger strike until Amritpal and the other detainees were transferred to a jail in Punjab.
Besides Amritpal, nine of his associates—Daljeet Singh Kalsi, Papalpreet Singh, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, Varinder Singh Johal, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, Harjit Singh, Bhagwant Singh, Basant Singh, and Gurinderpal Singh Aujla—have been charged under the NSA.
The Punjab police arrested Amritpal Singh earlier in April, concluding a manhunt that lasted over a month.
Singh, a radical preacher who modeled himself after the deceased Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was taken into custody.
The preacher was arrested while exiting a gurdwara in Rode, Bhindranwale's hometown. He was dressed in traditional attire, complete with a sheathed sword. Rode is not only Bhindranwale's birthplace but also where the preacher assumed the leadership of Waris Punjab De last year.
The 29-year-old was arrested under the strict National Security Act and transported to Assam via a special flight. He is now housed at the Dibrugarh Central Jail, along with nine other associates who were apprehended weeks after his arrest.
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