DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Jailed radical Sikh preacher and MP-elect Amritpal Singh will write to the Punjab government, seeking a temporary release from the detention in a jail in Assam to take oath as the member of parliament, his counsel Imaan Singh Khara said on Sunday. "In a day or so, he will write to seek temporary release under Section 15 of the National Security Act that deals with the temporary release from detention," he said. Amritpal, the chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, is currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail along with nine associates under the NSA.

Having fought the 2024 Lok Sabha electoral battle as an Independent, he won from the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat after he defeated Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira.

Amritpal won by a margin of 1,97,120 votes. He polled 4,04,430 while Zira got 2,07,310.

His parents Tarsem Singh and Balwinder Kaur arrived in Assam on Saturday to meet him. Amritpal, who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga's Rode village on April 23 last year following an over a month-long manhunt.

The Khalistan sympathiser had escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, switching vehicles and changing appearances.

The Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the February 23 Ajnala incident last year in which Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of Lovepreet Singh Toofan, one of his aides.

He and his associates were booked under several criminal cases related to spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants./ PTI /
(editor@dailyworld.in)