Separatist Amritpal Singh To Fight Lok Sabha Polls, Claims His Lawyer

Separatist Amritpal Singh, who is currently lodged in a jail in Assam under the National Security Act, will fight the Lok Sabha polls from Punjab's Khadoor Sahib seat as an Independent candidate, his counsel claimed on Wednesday.

However, his father, Tarsem Singh, said he would comment on the matter only after meeting his son on Thursday while asserting that Amritpal Singh had earlier not shown any interest in joining politics.

Amritpal Singh's legal counsel Rajdev Singh Khalsa claimed that he met the separatist in Dibrugarh jail on Wednesday and requested him to contest the polls.

"I met bhai sahab (Amritpal Singh) in Dibrugarh central jail today and during the meeting, I requested bhai sahab that in the interests of 'Khalsa Panth', he should fight elections this time from Khadoor Sahib to become a member of parliament.

"Bhai sahab accepted my request in the Panthic interests... He will fight as an Independent candidate," claimed Khalsa.

Amritpal Singh, chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, was arrested in April last year and the stringent NSA was invoked against him.

He along with nine of his associates is currently lodged in Dibrugarh jail.

Amritpal Singh, who styled himself after dead Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga's Rode village on April 23 last year following a more than one-month-long manhunt.

He had escaped the police in Jalandhar district in March last year, switching vehicles and changing appearances.

The Punjab Police had launched the crackdown after the February 23 Ajnala incident last year in which Amritpal Singh and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, broke through barricades and barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of Lovepreet Singh Toofan, one of his aides.

He and his associates had been booked under several criminal cases related to spreading disharmony among classes, attempts to murder, attacks on police personnel, and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)