Chandigarh/Dibrugarh, March 19: Police on Sunday conducted flag marches and searches across Punjab in their manhunt for radical preacher Amritpal Singh, arresting 34 more supporters and shifting four men in custody to a jail in far-off Assam.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has, however, asked the state government to respond on Tuesday to a habeas corpus petition, that claimed the preacher is already in police custody and should be released.
Justice N S Shekhawat held the hearing at his home-office as the courts were closed. Police stuck to their version that the ‘Waris Punjab De’ chief gave them the slip during a car chase in Jalandhar district on Saturday, when the crackdown against the group began. They have slapped fresh FIRs against the Khalistan sympathiser and his supporters.
Section 144 of the CrPc, which prohibits congregations, was imposed in the union territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana. Prohibitory orders were already in force in some parts of Punjab.
Police recovered a second vehicle in the case, an abandoned pick-up with a gun, a sword and several cartridges in Jalandhar district’s Salema village and said it appeared to be a part of Amritpal Singh’s cavalcade.
Twenty-one Amritpal supporters were taken into custody near Boparai Kalan in Jalandhar district when they tried to stage a ‘dharna’ over the previous days’ action.
These detentions are apparently not part of the arrests’ tally given by police 78 on Saturday and 34 more on Sunday. Earlier, police said nine firearms have also been seized.
The state remained on high alert. Security forces took out flag marches at several places including Ferozepur, Bathinda, Rupnagar, Faridkot, Batala, Fazilka, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Moga and Jalandhar in a show of strength.
The Punjab government also extended the suspension of mobile internet and SMS services till Monday noon. The official order, which exempted banking services, said this was to ‘prevent any incitement to violence and any disturbance of peace and public order’.
