Chandigarh/Dibrugarh: Punjab Police on Monday invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against five arrested associates of fugitive Khalistan sympathiser and self-proclaimed preacher Amritpal Singh, who eluded capture for the third successive day even as his uncle Harjit Singh - one of those booked under the stringent law - and aide Harpreet Singh surrendered in Jalandhar.
The duo gave themselves up after turning up at a police checkpoint in the Mehatpur Shahkot area a little after Sunday midnight in the Mercedes that had been Amritpal’s getaway vehicle after he supposedly abandoned an Isuzu pickup truck at Salema village in the same district. Harjit was carrying a . 32bore licensed weapon and around Rs 120,000 in cash.
The decision to slap the NSA on the five men, four of whom had been shifted to a jail in Assam's Dibrugarh on Sunday, was taken after leads emerged of foreign funding of Amritpal's allegedly subversive activities, hawala transfers and a possible link with Pakistani spy agency ISI.
Harjit was also flown to the Assam town, 440 km from state capital Guwahati, hours after his surrender. Six more members of Amritpal's pro-Khalistan outfit Waris Punjab De are likely to be taken to Dibrugarh in the next 24 hours. Besides Harjit, the four being kept in a jail there are Daljeet Kalsi, Basant Singh, Gurmeet Singh Bhukhanwala and Bhagwant Singh, alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke.
