NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police are looking for a separatist chief who has revived requires an impartial Sikh homeland, stirring fears of violence in northwestern Punjab state the place there’s a historical past of bloody insurgency.

Police have accused Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, and his aides of making discord within the state, which is haunted by the reminiscences of an armed insurgency within the Eighties for an impartial Sikh state referred to as Khalistan. The insurgency had prompted a controversial navy operation by the Indian authorities that killed 1000’s of individuals, based on official estimates.

Authorities have deployed 1000’s of paramilitary troopers to the state and suspended cellular web companies in some areas to stop unrest, Sukhchain Singh Gill, the inspector basic of police for Punjab, mentioned Wednesday. He mentioned police have to this point arrested 154 supporters of Singh and seized 10 weapons and ammunition.

Singh has been on the run for the reason that seek for him started on Saturday.

Singh, who has mentioned he helps the Khalistan motion, captured nationwide consideration in February when a whole bunch of his supporters stormed a police station in Punjab with swords and weapons to demand the discharge of a jailed aide.

Very little is understood about Singh, who for years drove a truck in Dubai within the United Arab Emirates. He emerged in 2022 in Punjab and started main marches calling for safeguarding rights of Sikhs who account for about 1.7% of India’s inhabitants.

His speeches have turn out to be more and more well-liked amongst supporters of the Khalistan motion, which is banned in India. Officials see it and affiliated teams as a nationwide safety risk. Even although the motion has waned over time, it nonetheless has some assist in Punjab and past — together with in international locations like Canada and the United Kingdom, that are house to a large Sikh diaspora.

On Sunday, supporters of the motion pulled down the Indian flag on the nation’s excessive fee in London and smashed the constructing’s window in a present of anger towards the transfer to arrest Singh. India’s international ministry denounced the incident and summoned the U.Ok.’s deputy excessive commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it referred to as the breach of safety on the embassy in London.

On Wednesday, police eliminated non permanent safety barricades outdoors the British High Commission in New Delhi, information company Press Trust of India reported. There was no rapid remark from the police or the federal government whether or not it was in retaliation to the incident in London.

The supporters of the Khalistan motion additionally vandalized the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Monday.

Singh claims to attract inspiration from Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh militant chief accused by the Indian authorities of main an armed insurgency for Khalistan. Bhindranwale and his supporters had been killed in 1984 when the Indian military stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine within the Sikh faith.

Singh additionally heads Waris Punjab De, or Punjab’s Heirs, a company that was a part of an enormous marketing campaign to mobilize farmers towards controversial agriculture reforms being pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities. The laws triggered a yr of protests that started in 2020, as farmers — most of them Sikhs from Punjab state — camped on the outskirts of New Delhi by way of a harsh winter and devastating coronavirus surge. The protests ended after Modi’s government withdrew the legislation in November 2021.

Waris Punjab De was based by Deep Sidhu, an Indian actor who died in 2022 in a site visitors accident.