Manish Kumar runs a automobile rental service within the metropolis of Jalandhar in India’s northern state of Punjab. For the previous two weeks, his enterprise has been struggling—beginning on March 18, when, for 4 days, cell web was shut down throughout massive areas of the state on the order of the federal government. Many of his prospects use Google Pay to pay their payments. “Most people these days prefer to pay via ecommerce,” he stated. “The shutdown meant they couldn’t do that.” 

From March 18 to 21, 27 million folks throughout Punjab had been left with out cell web entry, disrupting lives and companies. In some districts, the blackout went on for greater than every week. As the federal government tried to cease the unfold of data—or, in its phrases, “fake news”—it demanded that Twitter block greater than 120 accounts, from these belonging to native journalists to that of Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh.

It was all to hunt for one man—a 30-year-old Sikh separatist, Amritpal Singh Sandhu.

Sandhu is a preacher, and a outstanding determine in a motion demanding the creation of an impartial state for the Sikh group, often known as Khalistan. The motion has sympathizers among the many massive Sikh diaspora, notably within the UK and Canada, however Indian officers deal with it as a risk to nationwide safety.

Sandhu’s rise in Punjab politics has been speedy. Until final yr, he was primarily based in Dubai, working for his household’s transport enterprise. Then, in March 2022, he grew to become a shock selection as head of Waris Punjab De, a stress group based to advocate for farmers’ rights in Punjab. In August, he returned to Punjab.

The method of his arrival appeared calibrated to drive consideration on social media. He landed dressed like a well-known Sikh militant, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed by authorities forces contained in the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. Sandhu’s supporters posted the picture throughout a number of Facebook pages, consideration began to snowball on-line, and his profile grew till his story broke out on mainstream media.

“He was clean-shaven until a year ago,” says Hartosh Singh Bal, government editor of The Caravan journal, who has written extensively about Punjab. “Suddenly, he comes into Punjab, claims many things, grows his hair, baptizes himself, and grows a following. There is a huge amount of construction in this man, who never had support on the ground on any large level.”

His attain additionally grew among the many big Sikh diaspora. Many households have members abroad, the results of emigration waves—one in all which got here after big riots sparked by Bhindranwale’s dying. Money from the diaspora helps causes and politicians, making abroad Sikhs influential within the state’s political life.

Then, in February, Sandhu and a gaggle of armed supporters stormed a police station in Ajnala, 15 miles from Amritsar in Western Punjab, in retaliation for the arrest of one in all his aides. Six law enforcement officials had been injured. The occasion gave Sandhu an aura, Bal stated. But it was some time earlier than the authorities lastly began their operation to search out him.