Hours after his arrest, Amritpal Singh, the Chief of "Waris Punjab De" was flown to Dibrugarh jail in eastern Assam on Sunday afternoon with the security officials calling it a move to ensure "foolproof safety" of the Punjab "insurgent leader."
A special Indian Air Force aircraft, carrying Amritpal and at least 12 security personnel landed at Dibrugarh Airport at around 2.20pm, from where a convoy of 11 vehicles took him to Dibrugarh jail, situated about 15kms away. At around 2.35pm, the convoy reached the jail, where nine of Amritpal's aides including his uncle Harjeet Singh were earlier lodged.
A police officer in Dibrugarh told DH that Amritpal was lodged in a separate cell, which was away from other pro-Khalistan leaders as part of security briefs conveyed to them by the central security agencies. He said Assam police commandos, CRPF and other security personnel have been deployed, apart from new sets of CCTV cameras in and around the jail in order to ensure safety of the insurgent leaders.
Why Dibrugarh jail?
Although Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on March 19 said the pro-Khalistani leaders were lodged in Dibrugarh jail as part of a "police to police" cooperation, an official in Dibrugarh police said Amritpal and his aides were shifted mainly to keep them in "safe distance" from other pro-Khalistani gangsters, who are lodged in several jails in Punjab or in other jails.
Dibrugarh jail is one of the oldest and highly fortified jails, where many Ulfa insurgent leaders and "dreaded" cadres were lodged when Ulfa insurgency was at its peak in Assam in the 1990s.It has capacity to keep at least 680 prisoners. "It is also a strategy to prevent any kind of protest by the pro-Khalistani sympathisers. We had also shifted some Ulfa militants to Bihar similarly during the 1990s as keeping them here was considered not safe," the official said.
Days after security agencies launched a crackdown against the pro-Khalistani workers, four aides of Amritpal were flown to Dibrugarh jail on March 19. Five others including Harjeet Singh were also taken to the jail later.
Amritpal, who was absconding, was arrested on Sunday at Punjab's Moga district. Police said Amritpal was arrested from Rode, the ancestral village of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Khalistani ideologue, who was killed in 1984.
Meanwhile, pro-Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun reportedly released a voice message to several journalists in Assam on Sunday evening, in which he reportedly condemned the move to shift Amritpal and his aides to Dibrugarh. He had earlier issued a "threat message" to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma alleging torture to the pro-Khalistani leaders in the Assam jail.