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Pro-Khalistan preacher Amritpal Singh provocative speeches (on social media and at gatherings) since he landed in Punjab in September last year have become the main grounds on which the stringent National Security Act was slapped against him, according to senior Punjab Police officials in the know of the matter .

These grounds will be the part of the dossier the Punjab Police is set to submit to the state governments advisory board on April 25, it is learnt. The documents will be presented by a team of Amritsar rural police to the board headed by retired high court judge Justice Shabihul Hasnain (chairperson) with Suveer Sheokand and Divanshu Jainas its members.

Amritpal is currently lodged in an isolated cell in Assams Dibrugarh jail, away from his nine aides booked under NSA. The 37-day hunt for the radical leader had ended in Moga on Sunday with his arrest. One of the aides of Amritpal, Bikramjit Laddu, a resident of SBS Nagar district, who is also booked under NSA, is yet to be arrested.

According to the provisions, it is compulsory for the police to submit details of the reasons behind invoking the NSA to the board which will have to submit its report to the government within seven weeks from the date of detention of the person concerned as per the Act.

The grounds on which the NSA has been invoked against Amritpal are:

*His speeches focus on creation of Khalistan by way of secession of Punjab from India. Police claim it is undermining the sovereignty of the country.

*Amritpal threatened Union home minister Amit Shah against hindrances to his demand for a separate Sikh state. By referring to the assassination of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he said that she too tried to suppress Khalistan militancy but got killed.

*The radical leader made a provocative speech outside the Ajnala police station, threatening the administration not to take any action against him or his associates. He also threatened the Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann by saying that if he continued to operate in a similar fashion, he could also be targeted by a human bomb like Dilawar Singh who killed ex-CM Beant Singh.

*Amritpal is always surrounded by several armed private bodyguards who brandish arms and ammunition. His armed followers have formed an armed group called the Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF). Ever since he started his speeches, he had been promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, place of birth and language, say police.

*On the day of his dastarbandi (first ceremonial tying of the turban) at Rode village, Amritpal delivered a speech against Hindus, criticising Hindu culture.At the same event, Jasbir Singh Rode, brother of Lakhbir Singh Rode (chief of the proscribed organisation International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF)/ Khalistan Liberation Force), presented the turban to Amritpal. According to the police tiffin bombs, RDX, explosives, etc were recovered earlier from Jasbirs house and office, and his son Gurmukh Singh was arrested by the NIA.

The advisory board, accompanied by Punjab Police IG Rakesh Aggarwal and SP Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, had visited the Dibrugarh jail on April 19- 20 to meet the nine NSA detainees. On Tuesday, lawyers of the detainees will also be given the opportunity by the board to defend their case.

Ravinder Vasudeva is a principal correspondent who writes for the Punjab bureau of Hindustan Times.

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NSA slapped on Amritpal for his provocative speeches, say Punjab Police - Hindustan Times