30 million people without internet

AFPAmritpal Singh (centre) with his bodyguards

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 09:56

In the Indian state of Punjab, a manhunt for a champion of statehood has far-reaching consequences for the Sikhs: the police have shut down the internet, so that 30 million people can no longer go online. More than 110 followers of this Amritpal Singh have been arrested and weapons have been seized – Singh and his supporters carry firearms and swords.

The unrest began last month when hundreds of Singh’s supporters stormed a police station because one of his associates was detained there. On Saturday, police stopped a convoy belonging to Singh and tried unsuccessfully to arrest him. The 30-year-old activist has been on the run ever since. According to the police, he has set up a militia, the logo of which has been found on the entrance to his house and on guns and bulletproof vests that have been confiscated.

The hunt for Singh has also had consequences abroad: diplomatic posts of India have been attacked and defaced by Sikh activists in various places in the world.

Bloody operation

The reason the authorities are so keen on Singh is historical: in the 1970s and 1980s there was already a strong separatist movement in Punjab, which fought for the independent state of Khalistan, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

At the behest of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the army intervened with a heavy hand and Bhindranwale was killed in June 1984 at the complex of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the most important shrine for the Sikhs. He had taken refuge there in the hope that he would be left undisturbed.

The bloody operation sparked outrage among Sikhs worldwide and a few months later Indira Gandhi was murdered in revenge by one of her bodyguards, who was a Sikh herself.

Less work

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Sikhs’ struggle for independence in Punjab was crushed, at the cost of some 30,000 deaths. The Indian government still looks at the state with suspicion and is therefore taking firm action against activists such as Singh.

In the background, there is dissatisfaction among the large number of farmers in Punjab, who have less and less income. Unemployment is high among young people. Singh has gained a large following on social media and that seems to be the reason why internet is now not accessible in Punjab: this is how the police want to prevent Singh from mobilizing his followers.

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