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4 Amritpal Singh associates taken to jail in Assam
A 27-member team of Punjab Police headed by inspector general of prisons and superintendent of police Tejbir Singh Hundal brought the four arrested persons in an airforce plane on Sunday morning.
Four members of the Punjab-based outfit headed by Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh were flown to Assam on Sunday for undisclosed reasons. The four people were arrested in Punjab on Friday, police said, but declined to name them.
A 27-member team of Punjab Police headed by inspector general of prisons and superintendent of police Tejbir Singh Hundal brought the four arrested persons in an airforce plane on Sunday morning. They were received at Mohanbari Airport by Biswajit Pegu, deputy commissioner of Dibrugarh district, and superintendent of police Shwetank Mishra, and sent to Dibrugarh Central Jail in a bus.
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The high-profile prisoners are members of Waris Punjab De and close aides of Amritpal Singh. Punjab Police on Saturday cracked down on the pro-Khalistan leaders and several persons were arrested. Some of the pro-Khalistan leaders attempted to flee India via Bangladesh and travelled to northeastern states to reach the Bangladesh border, officials said, seeking anonymity.
Police declined to name the four persons. “We are not ready to reveal the names for now, but we’ll definitely tell you later,” Hundal said. “The persons taken from Panjab will be imprisoned at Dibrugarh Central Jail for now.”
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Assam Police spokesperson Prasanta Bhuiyan declined to speak on the matter.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday evening said that this was not new and the state government had earlier collaborated with Bihar police in a similar case.
“We collaborated with Bihar police for a similar operation in the past and this is not a new experience. However, this is a case between police of two states and I don’t want to comment on this further,” Sarma said.
After the arrival of the prisoners from Punjab, Dibrugarh police tightened security arrangements in the district. “We keep security arrangements tight around the jail and it has been upgraded further due to the arrival of prisoners from Punjab. We cannot speak further on this,” Mishra said.
