Home ministry asks BSF to be on high alert in view of possible attempt by Amritpal to escape

Mukesh Ranjan

New Delhi, March 20

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sent direction to the Directors General (DGs) of Border Security Force (BSF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) to ask their field formations to be on high alert in frontier areas in view of a possible attempt by Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh to escape the country, officials said on Monday.

The officials said even the immigration authorities at international airports had been asked to remain on high alert.

A senior official said the two paramilitary forces had already sent all required inputs to their field units with two photographs of Amritpal – with and without a turban.

The official said that in view of Punjab Police declaring Amritpal as a “fugitive”, intelligence agencies have sounded that there is a possibility that he could try to cross the India-Nepal border or the International Border in Punjab.

“As the Indo-Nepal border is guarded by SSB and the IB in Punjab is being manned by the BSF, the two forces have been asked to be on alert and to sensitise all personnel deployed at the border posts,” the official said.

Punjab Police had planned to arrest Amritpal at Mehatpur on the Jalandhar-Moga road on Saturday. He, however, evaded them and sources said he left his vehicle and mobile phone near Nakodar. The hunt for Amritpal has been continuing with the district police chiefs carrying out flag marches in major towns in Punjab and the state government extending internet suspension till Tuesday noon.

Officials in intelligence agencies said Amritpal had gone to Dubai in 2012 to work as a truck driver in his family transport business. Around the time, he also came in contact with Jaswant Singh Rode, brother of Pakistan-based proscribed Khalistani operative Lakhbir Singh Rode, and militant Paramjit Singh Pamma. It is suspected that they brought him in contact with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which offered him money to revive Khalistan separatist sentiments in Punjab.

“Avtar Singh Khanda, who is a UK-based SAD-Amritsar activist, and also a close associate of Khalistani terrorist Jagtar Singh Tara, is the main handler, who orchestrated his meteoric rise. Khanda is also close to Pamma and is known for radicalising Sikh youth by holding classes for them,” another senior official in the security establishment said.