Chandigarh: Waris Punjab De Chief, Amritpal Singh who escaped Police's dragnet a week ago released a 2-minute video statement after speculations of his 'surrender' on Wednesday, slamming the government over mass arrests in Punjab and calling for Sarbat Khalsa on Baisakhi (holy sikh festival) at Damdama Sahib in Amritsar.
Sarbal Khalsa was a biannual deliberative assembly (on the same lines as a Parliament in a Direct Democracy) of the Sikhs held at Amritsar in Panjab during the 18th century.
Singh, in the video, claimed that he would have surrendered himself to the police if they had come to his house.
"If the Punjab government had the intention of arresting me, police could have come to my house and I would have given in," he said
Here is the translation of his video;
Today I'm speaking to the Sikh Sangat for the first time since 18 March. I want to first talk about what happened on 18 March. If the government wanted to only arrest me, they could have said so and I would have surrendered. But they tried to trap me by deploying lakhs of police personnel. But Satguru Sache Patshah helped me escape
Then my internet stopped and I didn't come to know what was happening.
Now, I managed to see some news regarding what has happened. The Punjab government has crossed all limits of oppression. They have framed Sikh youngsters and put them in jails. They didn't even spare women and children.
This is similar to what Beant Singh's government did in Punjab.
I thank the entire Sangat for standing by me for speaking out against what they thought was my arrest. I thank those who protested and courted arrest. We need to understand, this isn't about my arrest alone. This is an attack on the Sikh community as a whole. I was not afraid of being arrested earlier and I'm not afraid now.
There was a meeting after which the Akal Takht Jathedar gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to release detainees. But the government challenged Akal Takht's statement in a very petty manner. Jathedar sahab should take a very strong stand on this.
He should call for a Sarbat Khalsa on Baisakhi at Damdama Sahib. I urge Sikhs in India and abroad to take part in this so that we can discuss the challenges the community is facing. For a long time, our community has been struggling through small protests and morchas.