The rise of Amritpal Singh, his ascension to the head of Waris Punjab De, and becoming the face of ‘Khalistan’ in 6 months

Amritpal Singh regularly posted radical posts on social media before officially taking up Waris Punjab De

Mar 1, 2023 - 05:30
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The rise of Amritpal Singh, his ascension to the head of Waris Punjab De, and becoming the face of ‘Khalistan’ in 6 months
Amritpal Singh

As Waris Punjab De’s chief Amritpal Singh gains popularity among pro-Khalistani elements across the globe, more details about his history are emerging. Amritpal recently made headlines following a clash between his supporters and Punjab Police personnel at Ajnala Police Station in Punjab. He is being criticized for taking Shri Guru Granth Sahib to the site and using it as a shield against the police personnel.

Twitter user The Hawk Eye recently dug up the history of this “rising star” of Khalistanis.

So who is Amritpal Singh Sandhu? He is a 30-year-old pro-Khalistan leader who leads an organization named Waris Punjab De. Within six months of his arrival to India and taking over the organization started by late actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, Amritpal has reached the point where he can mobilize thousands of supporters and direct them to barge into a police station to get his aide released. The Hawk Eye investigated whether his popularity among the masses was organic or planted.

Amritpal Singh was born in Jallupur Khera, Amritsar, in 1994. In 2012, he moved to Dubai to join his family’s transport business. Amritpal’s LinkedIn page shows he was the operations manager at Sandhu Cargo, and his mail ID was amrit@sandhucargo.com. Amritpal did his Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Mechanical Engineering from Lord Krishna Polytechnic College, Kapurthala, Punjab, per his LinkedIn page. OpIndia checked and confirmed the existence of the LinkedIn page that can be accessed from here.

Amritpal Singh remained active on social media throughout his time in Dubai and propagated his ideology extensively via his posts. He used a specific ID, sandhuamrit10, on Twitter to spread the propaganda. That Twitter account has now been deleted. However, its archive is available here, here, here, here, and here.

In February 2022, there were several posts where Amritpal targeted women, the Left, and liberals in his tweets. He consistently propagated extremist views and used hashtags like #SikhGenocideContinues and more. Interestingly, famous liberals like Kawal Preet and AISA activists were his target.

Amritpal also targeted women from Punjab and called feminism ‘fake activism’ as some of them spoke against Khalistan. The Hawk Eye noted, “There are several such exchanges with a left ideologue, specifically female handles ridiculing as fake activists who must be “exposed”. Apparently, they are the subject of Amritpal’s hate because they support every other cause like Hijab, Philistines, BLM but not voicing for Khalistan.”

His hate extended extensively to the Hindu community, as shown in several tweets. He posted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party, former Prime Ministers, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, and Congress leaders like Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and many others.

After the death of Deep Sidhu, in a social media post, Amritpal Singh was declared heir of Waris Punjab De. However, the family of Deep Sidhu denied any connection to Singh. Interestingly, the social media handles included in Singh’s posts had a “typo” in the name of Waris Punjab De, possibly because Singh and his associates could not access the original social media pages.

In May last year, Deep Sidhu’s relative came out as the chief of “real” Waris Punjab De, but it did not gain the traction Amritpal Singh managed to get.

Our investigation into old replays of Deep Sidhu’s discussions on Clubhouse has revealed there was always a plan for Khalistan under the banner of ‘Waris Punjab De’.

Amritpal Singh came to India in September 2022. He went to Georgia before coming to India, and intelligence agencies hinted at a possible connection to ISI in their reports.

Soon after reaching India and officially taking over Waris Punjab De, Amritpal organized a march across Punjab and named it “Khalsa Vaheer”. His march made it possible for him to reach the masses. Amritpal used social media platforms extensively to reach out to the masses. Recently, his accounts were restricted in India post Ajnala Police Station incident in Punjab, where his supporters attacked police personnel in an attempt to get his aide freed.

Speaking to OpIndia, The Hawk Eye said, “Dubai returned Amritpal Singh Sandhu’s meteoric rise is no less than a film script. From a troubling Twitter handle with two thousand followers to “Bhai Amritpal Singh” with thousands of real-time followers on the ground and hundreds of fan accounts on social media is an artificially pumped-up campaign. Intel agency’s warning make sense that Pakistan spying agency is trying to infiltrate again to bring Punjab Militancy 2.0.”

Our reporting on Amritpal Singh and his rise as a pro-Khalistan leader can be accessed here.

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