Internet shutdowns, dozens of arrests and a manhunt. What's happening in India's Punjab state?
CBC
Police in India's northwestern state of Punjab, the country's only Sikh-majority state, say they are on the hunt for a prominent voice in the separatist movement and have taken extraordinary steps to find him.
Punjabi police say they're carrying out a "mega crackdown" to apprehend Amritpal Singh, dubbed a "self-styled preacher" in India's English-language media. Police say he was able to "slip" away Saturday during an attempt to arrest him and a group of his followers. Officers have since made more than 100 "preventative arrests" of people they say were "attempting to disturb law and order."
Officials have also restricted gatherings in some areas to a maximum of four people and set up road checks in the state with a large separatist movement campaigning for an independent Sikh homeland which they call Khalistan.
In February, a large crowd of supporters stormed a police station in a village near Amritsar demanding the release of one of Singh's associates, who had been detained in a kidnapping case.
Mobile internet connections, including SMS messages, have been largely cut off in the state since Saturday and are expected to remain blocked until at least noon local time on Thursday. Broadband services are not affected.
While authorities say such measures are needed to maintain order and prevent the spread of "fake news," members of the Sikh community in Punjab, and in Canada, are critical.
"There is not a clear sense of why these measures were necessary," said Harjeet Singh Grewal, who teaches Sikh studies at the University of Calgary.
Nearly 25 per cent of the world's Sikhs live outside of India, including more than 750,000 in Canada, meaning events in Punjab are being watched closely far beyond the state's borders.
Grewal, like many other Sikhs in Canada, is concerned for the "potential violation of human rights" as Indian authorities limit communications as they pursue Singh. It's also happening at a time when many Punjabi people from Canada would be traveling to the state to see family.
Police, who have accused Singh and his supporters of attempted murder, obstruction of law enforcement and creating disharmony, said he "absconded" when officers tried to block his motorcade and arrest him.
Punjab's top police officer, Sukhchain Gill, told Reuters Amritpal Singh had set up a militia called Anandpur Khalsa Fauj, the logos of which were found on the gate of his house and on the rifles and bullet-proof jackets police recovered there.
Thirty-year-old Amritpal Singh has only recently risen to prominence in Punjab, a state of about 31 million people.
Many Sikhs in Hindu-majority India say they face discrimination and oppression, charges Indian authorities deny.
Amritpal Singh returned to India last August, becoming leader of a group whose name translates to the "Heirs of Punjab." Prior to that, while living in Dubai for 10 years, he found a following debating Punjab-related issues in online forums such as Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.
