Authorities in the Indian state of Punjab blocked mobile internet for 27 million residents and arrested at least 154 people while conducting a massive manhunt for a Sikh separatist leader who was relatively unknown until recently: Amritpal Singh.
Back in Punjab, the authorities deployed thousands of paramilitary soldiers and blocked roads. Singh apparently remains at large.
While the Khalistan movement is outlawed in India on national security grounds, a more radical generation of leaders like Singh has started to push separatism more openly, says Milan Vaishnav, director of the Carnegie Endowment's South Asia program. Some local politicians "have sort of played footsie" with separatist groups to win votes in Punjab, he says.
Singh says WSO’s tweets raising the alarm about the crackdown in Punjab were blocked inside India. He warns that the "draconian methods" being used in Punjab are reminiscent of the '80s and '90s, when thousands of Sikhs were killed or disappeared.
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