The mother of Amritpal Singh was arrested on Sunday, one day before a scheduled march demanding the transfer of the radical Sikh preacher from Dibrugarh jail in Assam to a prison in Punjab. Amritpal, leader of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ outfit, was arrested last April under the stringent National Security Act along with nine associates. They are currently incarcerated in Dibrugarh jail. Balwinder Kaur, Amritpal’s mother, has been sent to judicial custody, confirmed Deputy Commissioner of Police Alam Vijay Singh.
The arrest, deemed preventive, was made ahead of the ‘Chetna March’ planned to start from Takht Damdama Sahib in Bathinda on April 8, advocating for the relocation of Amritpal and his associates to Punjab. Kaur and other detainees’ relatives had been on a hunger strike near the Golden Temple in Amritsar since February 22, demanding their transfer to a Punjab jail.
In addition to Amritpal, his nine associates—Daljeet Singh Kalsi, Papalpreet Singh, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, Varinder Singh Johal, Gurmeet Singh Bukkanwala, Harjit Singh, Bhagwant Singh, Basant Singh, and Gurinderpal Singh Aujla—have also been booked under the NSA. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for the police action, condemning the arrests of various march organizers, including Amritpal Singh’s mother. SAD spokesman Parambans Singh Romana labeled the arrests as condemnable.