Amritpal Singh has finally been arrested and incarcerated. The Sikh preacher is known among his followers as Bhindranwale 2.0 and supported allegedly by the notorious Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) of the Pakistan military with arms and ammunition. Curiously, despite all these, he kept raising the dust in Punjab without any hindrance. A bigger question is, how and why the security services could not track down or arrest him for a full 35 days after a ban was effected on his outfit Waris Punjab De on March 18. He was very much in Punjab. This lack of seriousness on the part of the government is unacceptable when it comes to handling sensitive situations.
These are the days of CCTV cameras in street after street and at almost every spot in the public sphere. Yet, when a requirement arises, many of these are found to be not in “operational mode.” Properly used, these devices help governments to keep a close eye on the happenings and movements in public places round the clock. The ban on the outfit was effected after weeks of discussions. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed the matter on March 2. This, after Amritpal and his gun-wielding gang stormed a police station and clashed with the police in February. Logically, from then on, he should have been on the radar of the cops. Had they done so, his arrest immediately after the ban was possible. The security agencies were caught napping, resulting in a shameful situation. Admittedly, the Punjab police could not have been fully depended upon. The all-powerful central security forces should have tracked Amritpal’s movement for weeks before the ban. For, by any chance, if Amritpal had got a chance to cross over to Pakistan, India would have had a huge problem at hand. An escape from Punjab to Pakistan through the border region was possible.
Amritpal could have kept calling the shots from Pakistani soil, just as Dawood Ibrahim targeted India from Karachi or other hideouts elsewhere for many years. Had it happened, not only Amit Shah but the super sleuth, NSA Ajit Doval, too would have cut a very sorry figure. Even granted that the pro-Kashmir terrorists have majorly been neutralized through sustained efforts from India’s part — or due to failure of the Pakistani establishment to keep up its tempo against India — it is important that India continues its vigil without let or hindrance. Installation of CCTV cameras alone will not do; they must be made full use of by the security agencies and kept in operational mode.