Chandigarh: Radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who was appointed as the head of ‘Waris Punjab De’ last year, was arrested on Sunday morning. A chronology:
September 29, 2002: Radical preacher Amritpal Singh is anointed as the chief of the ‘Waris Punjab De’, an outfit founded by actor and activist Deep Sidhu, at a ‘dastar bandi’ (turban tying) ceremony in Moga’s Rode village — the ancestral village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
December 12, 2022: Supporters of Amritpal burn chairs at a gurdwara in Jalandhar, claiming chairs and sofas in a Sikh shrine are against ‘maryada’ (code of conduct) of Sikhism.
February 10, 2023: Amritpal ties the knot with UK-based NRI Kirandeep Kaur in his Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar.
February 16, 2023: Amritpal and his supporters, including Lovepreet Singh Toofan, were booked for allegedly kidnapping and thrashing a resident of Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar district.
February 17, 2023: Lovepreet Singh arrested.
February 23, 2023: Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, break through barricades and barge into Ajnala police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city and clash with policemen, demanding the release of Lovepreet Singh.
February 24, 2023: Lovepreet Singh was released from judicial custody.
March 18, 2023: Punjab Police launches a crackdown against Amritpal and his aides. His cavalcade was intercepted in Jalandhar but he manages to give the police a slip by switching vehicles. Mobile internet services are suspended in Punjab.
March 20, 2023: Amritpal’s uncle Harjit Singh and another person surrender before police near a gurdwara in Mehatpur, Jalandhar.
March 22, 2023: A picture of Amritpal and his close aide Papalpreet Singh sitting on a motorised cart emerges on social media.
March 23, 2023: A woman who harboured Amritpal and Papalpreet at her house in Haryana’s Kurukshetra held.
March 25, 2023: Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh asks Amritpal to surrender before the police.
March 28, 2023: A massive operation to trace Amritpal was conducted in Hoshiarpur after some suspects abandon a vehicle following a police chase.
March 29, 2023: A video of Amritpal surfaces online in which he calls for a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ congregation on Baisakhi.
March 30, 2023: Another video and an audio clip of Amritpal’s surface in which he asserts that he would soon appear before the world.
April 10, 2023: Papalpreet arrested from Kathunangal area in Amritsar.
April 15, 2023: Amritpal’s another close aide Joga Singh, who provided shelter to the radical preacher and Papalpreet in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit and brought them back to Punjab on March 28, was arrested from Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib.
April 20, 2023: Amritpal’s wife Kirandeep Kaur stopped from boarding a flight to London at the Sri Guru Ram Dass International Airport in Amritsar.
April 23, 2023: Amritpal arrested from Rode village in Moga district.
