Indian police hunt Sikh leader, arrest separatist supporters

NEW DELHI: Indian police have launched a search for a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland, stirring fears of violence in northwestern Punjab state where there’s a history of bloody insurgency.

Police have accused Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, and his aides of creating discord in the state, which is still haunted by the memories of an armed insurgency in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

The insurgency had prompted a controversial military operation by the Indian government that killed thousands of people, according to official estimates. Authorities have deployed thousands of paramilitary soldiers to the state and suspended mobile internet services in some areas to prevent unrest, Sukhchain Singh Gill, the inspector general of police for Punjab, said Wednesday.

He said police have so far arrested 154 supporters of Singh and seized 10 guns and some rounds of ammunition. The hunt for Singh was launched on Saturday and he has been on the run since.

Singh, who has said he supports the Khalistan movement, captured national headlines in February after hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station in Punjab with swords and guns to demand the release of a jailed aide.