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Punjab Police scale up manhunt for Amritpal
Punjab Police stepped up their manhunt for Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh nearly 48 hours after he appeared to have given them the slip once again, after being spotted in a Hoshiarpur village on Tuesday evening before going untraceable.
Punjab Police stepped up their manhunt for Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh nearly 48 hours after he appeared to have given them the slip once again, after being spotted in a Hoshiarpur village on Tuesday evening before going untraceable.
A massive hunt has been launched by the police in Hoshiarpur district and even drones were used to search for the fugitive Sikh radical leader after he fled leaving his car near a gurdwara in village Mernaian Kalan. The village is situated around 12 km from Hoshiarpur town. Special teams have also been sent to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, taking into account the possibility that the pro-Khalistan leader could have slipped out of Punjab. According to officials involved in the search operation, Amritpal was travelling from Hoshiarpur to Phagwara on Tuesday when the location of a mobile number temporarily used by him was tapped by the police.
Following this, a local team of counterintelligence started chasing the Khalistani leader who has been on the run since March 18.
A police team chased Amritpal’s vehicle but he managed to dodge them, driving towards Marnaiyan Kalan village and abandoning the car at a dead end, officials said. Amritpal, who was travelling with his associate Papalpreet Singh and one other person, disappeared after crossing the wall of a gurdwara, a police officer involved in the hunt said.
Punjab Police on Thursday also launched a hunt to recover the mobile phone which helped the police to track Amritpal’s location when he started moving from Hoshiarpur to Phagwara.
“Papalpreet was also travelling with Amritpal and both might have dumped their mobile phones,” said an official.
A senior Police official also disclosed that a Punjab Police team have contacted the Hazur Sahib-based Kar Sewa Dera whose stickers were found on the two cars used by Amritpal. Whereas the Innova Car was found parked outside a gurdwara on Tuesday evening, another vehicle also with Kar Sewa Dera stickers was found outside Tibba Sahib gurdwara situated in Kapurthala district.
Police probes have revealed that Amritpal entered Punjab on Tuesday afternoon and first went to Tibba Sahib and then moved towards Hoshiarpur.
“We have established contact with the Dera management whose vehicles were used by Amritpal. Dera has a soft corner for him that is for sure. Did they help him come back to Punjab, nothing is sure yet, We are still investigating,” a senior Punjab Police official in Chandigarh said.
Queries to DIG Jalandhar Swapan Sharma, SSP Amritsar Rural Satinder Singh and SSP Jalandhar Rural Mukhwinder Bhullar went unanswered.
