Amritpal's party denies link to Canada-based pro-Khalistani outfit

Time of India

2 days ago

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Chandigarh: Akali Dal Waris Punjab De, the political party of jailed Khadoor Sahib MP
Amritpal Singh
, has denied any association with Canada-based pro-Khalistani organisation Anandpur Khalsa Fauj International Association (AKFIA), a group that Punjab Police claim is recruiting and training Sikh youth for guerrilla warfare against the country.
In a "clarification" on its letterhead on July 26, Akali Dal Waris Punjab De, formed on Jan 13 on Maghi Mela in Muktsar, has denied "any type of relation" with the group set up in Surrey in Feb.
Referring to a letter dated March 23, 2025, by Punjab additional director general of police (intelligence) to all commissioners of police and senior superintendents of police, the grounds of detention supplied to Amritpal to detain him under NSA for another year cited resolutions passed by AKFIA.
These resolutions allegedly "urged Sikhs to undergo arms training", advocated "armed struggle for complete independence of Punjab", and planned "to gherao Indian embassies over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (now deceased).
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Amritpal, who has been in Assam's Dibrugarh jail for three consecutive years, had his NSA detention extended for the third time on April 17. Nine grounds of detention had been conveyed to Amritpal.
In 2023, Amritpal was alleged to be involved in arranging arms and weapons training for the Sikh youth in his native village Jallupur Khera to create a radicalised force, Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF), with police claiming to recover weapons and jackets with 'AKF' written on them.
The clarification regarding the Canada-based AKFIA by Amritpal's party further read, "On the basis of this organisation, the NSA has also been imposed for the third time on Amritpal Singh by the govt.
In the times to come, Akali Dal Waris Punjab De and Amritpal Singh Khalsa (MP Khadoor Sahib) will not be responsible for any kind of acts of this (read AKFIA) organisation."
The next day, on July 27, the clarification was also put out on the official X account of Waris Punjab De chief.
Advocate Imaan Singh Khara, chief spokesperson, Akali Dal Waris Punjab De, told TOI that Amritpal has been in jail for three years in a row and could not have directed the formation of any organisation.
Khara challenged the govt to provide evidence of such an order.
Vancouver-based Sukhjinder Pal Singh Mann, associated with the AKFIA's formation in Surrey, Canada, had earlier put out a video denying any "basic/primary relationship between his group and any other association in Punjab or outside the state.
Mann said in the video that AKFIA was formed on Feb 16 in Gurdwara Guru Nanak Sahib in Canada on the third anniversary of "Shaheed Deep Singh Sidhu."
Sidhu, a Punjabi actor and Sikh activist, had shot into the limelight following the Red Fort violence during the farmers' rally against the now-scrapped farm laws on Republic Day in 2021. He had died in a road accident on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal highway near Haryana's Sonipat in Feb 2022.
When contacted on Tuesday, Mann told TOI, "We have already made it clear that we don't have any link with any other association in Punjab or outside. Our organisation has been formed for the freedom of Punjab. We stand by all those who are concerned with Panth and Punjab. This organisation has not been made on the directions of Amritpal Singh. He did not direct its formation verbally or in writing. He is respectable to us, and our love for him will remain till the last breath and till the time he keeps on batting for the interests of Punjab.
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