Spotted! Police chase in Punjab day after Amritpal Singh appears in undated CCTV footage from Delhi

Amritpal Singh with his key aide Papalpreet Singh. Photo; Screengrab/CCTV footage

Chandigarh: A new video of Amritpal Singh with his key aide Papalpreet Singh surfaced on social media on Tuesday, showing the pro-Khalistan preacher even as the Punjab police launched a massive operation in search of the radical preacher in Hoshiarpur.

The undated CCTV footage, said to be from a market in Delhi, showed the fugitive walking down a street without a turban, and wearing a mask and dark glasses. Behind him, Papalpreet Singh could be seen walking with a bag.

There is no official word from Punjab Police on the fresh footage.

The video has emerged a day after a picture of Amritpal Singh and Papalpreet Singh widely circulated on social media. That image showed both these men looking relaxed and Amritpal Singh holding a beverage can.

Papalpreet Singh is said to be Amritpal Singh's mentor. He was allegedly in contact with Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

Massive search ops in Hoshiarpur

In the wake of the Punjab Police being on high alert after radical preacher Amritpal Singh escaped its dragnet, a massive search operation was launched in a Hoshiarpur village late on Tuesday night after some suspects abandoned their vehicle following a chase.

A police team was chasing a car from Phagwara after it suspected that fugitive Amritpal and his aide could be travelling in that vehicle, sources said.

The occupants of the vehicle abandoned the car near Gurdwara Bhai Chanchal Singh in Marnaian village here and fled, they said.

A cordon and search operation has been launched in and around the village while checkposts and barricades have been raised on the roads to nab the suspects.

Amritpal Singh remains untraceable since a police crackdown against him and members of his pro-Khalistan 'Waris Punjab De' outfit on March 18, about three weeks after he and his supporters stormed into the Ajnala police station near Amritsar to secure the release of an arrested man.

The preacher escaped the police dragnet in Jalandhar district on March 18, switching vehicles and changing appearances.

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

Police said Amritpal Singh and Papalpreet Singh were allegedly harboured by a woman at her home in Shahabad in Haryana's Kurukshetra district on March 19.

On March 25, CCTV footage emerged purportedly showing Amritpal Singh talking on a mobile phone.

The police action began about three weeks after Amritpal Singh and his supporters stormed the Ajnala police station near Amritsar to secure the release of an arrested man. Six police personnel were injured.

Punjab Police have arrested or detained a number of his associates under criminal cases related to spreading disharmony, attempt to murder and attack, police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge duty by public servants. They have slapped the stringent National Security Act against some of them.

On Sunday, Punjab Police said they have released 197 people out of 353 taken into preventive custody till then on apprehension of breach of peace and disturbance of law and order.  

(With PTI inputs.)

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