Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh has links with proscribed Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda: Sources

A connection between self-styled radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and Harvinder Singh Rinda, who was recently designated a proscribed terrorist by the Government of India, has come to the fore.

As per a top officer of the Punjab Police, Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh is in contact with Harvinder Singh Rinda. The officer told India Today/Aaj Tak that fugitive Amritpal Singh is in touch with Harvinder Singh Rinda, a notorious Punjabi gangster currently putting up in Pakistan.

Amritpal Singh is on the run after the Punjab Police launched an operation against him and his aides last Saturday. He is the chief of Waris Punjab De, a pressure group demanding Khalistan.

The police said that a total of 114 arrests have been made in the case so far, and there is a strong suspicion of ISI angle and foreign funding.

Amritpal Singh has been in touch with other Khalistani leaders and Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), according to intelligence sources.

UK-based SAD activist and a close associate of Khalistani terrorist Jagtar Singh Tara, Avtar Singh Khanda is the main handler of Amritpal Singh and the brain behind his meteoric rise, sources said.

Khanda is also close to Paramjit Singh Pamma (associated with Babbar Khalsa international) and is known for holding theoretical radical training classes for Sikh youth and misleading them. Sources said they have a deadly and deliberate aim of destabilising Punjab by ideological indoctrination and have a big influence on Amritpal Singh.

They have been trying to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using common chemicals by giving live demonstrations in Birmingham and Glasgow, sources said.

Amritpal Singh, the leader of the group Waris Punjab De, also reportedly has links with Lakhbir Singh Rode, head of the International Sikh Youth Federation, who is wanted in cases of arms smuggling (including RDX explosives), conspiracy to attack government leaders in New Delhi and spreading hatred in Punjab.

As per sources, when Amritpal Singh was in Dubai, he was in close touch with Rode’s brother Jaswant.

The police crackdown on Amritpal Singh came three weeks after he and his supporters broke into the Ajnala police station demanding the release of his aide Lovepreet Singh Toofan last month.

A massive search operation has been launched for Amritpal Singh, against whom the National Security Act has been invoked.

Also Read: 'Amritpal Singh spent 45 minutes in gurudwara, changed clothes, took priest's phone': Report

Also Read: Amritpal Singh manhunt: Uttarakhand police keeping close watch on Indo-Nepal border 

Watch | Who is Amritpal Singh of Waris Punjab De, what do Khalistani separatists want?