Why was Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh taken to Assam's Dibrugarh jail after arrest?

Tribune Web Desk

Chandigarh, April 24

Security was the reason that the Khalistan supporter Amritpal Singh, who was arrested from Punjab's Moga on Sunday, was taken to Assam's Dibrugarh.

The 166-year-old Assam jail in Dibrugarh is said to be among the most secure prisons in the northeast of India. Nine aides of Amritpal, members of the ‘Waris Punjab De’, are also lodged in the same jail.

The Punjab Police may have also shifted Amritpal there to avoid the possibility of a jailbreak as police were apprehensive about a repeat of the Ajnala jailbreak incident.

The Punjab Police arrested Amritpal Singh in Moga's Rode village early Sunday, ending an over a month-long manhunt against the Khalistani activist who styled himself after Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

"Amritpal has been kept in a separate cell, in a distant from his accomplices who are also in the same jail after they were arrested during Punjab Police crackdown," a senior official told ANI.

The official added that a team of Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and other Central Intelligence agencies would question Amritpal in Dibrugarh jail.

"He will be questioned on his association with his sympathisers and his source of funding. Because intelligence agencies have got a lot of inputs regarding his association with handlers in Pakistan and other countries," the official said.

"We have asked Assam Police to beef up security around jail premises and visitors to the jail to be thoroughly frisked and their details to be kept in record. Apart from state police, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) is also deployed in the periphery of jail premises," he added.

A special chartered flight from Bathinda Airport accompanied by a team of Punjab police took off at 8.25 am and reached the Dibrugarh Airport at 2.20 pm. They were received by senior Assam Police officers at the airport and he was immediately taken to Dibrugarh Jail where he was kept in a cell after a medical examination. With ANI inputs

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