Why is Amritpal Singh not being brought back to Punjab, jailed MP's mother asks Mann

Jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singhs mother on Thursday asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann why her son was not being brought back to Punjab from Assam despite his detention under the National Security Act having ended. Amritpal, who was detained under the National Security Act NSA in April 2023, had been lodged in Assams Dibrugarh jail ever since.

Jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh's mother on Thursday asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann why her son was not being brought back to Punjab from Assam despite his detention under the National Security Act having ended. When Mann was taking out his ''Shukrana Yatra'', which was organised at Rayya in Amritsar as a sign of ''gratitude'' for the implementation of the anti-sacrilege law, Amritpal's mother Balwinder Kaur reached close to the chief minister's vehicle. ''Listen to me for a minute. You are also the son of a mother. I am the mother of Amritpal. Why don't you bring Amritpal to Punjab despite (his detention under) the NSA has ended?'' Kaur could be heard asking in a video. Amritpal, who was detained under the National Security Act (NSA) in April 2023, had been lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail ever since. A day after his detention under the NSA ended on April 22, Amritpal was arrested in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack case. He continued to remain in the Dibrugarh jail. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had, following the state government's plea last month, directed that Amritpal would appear virtually before a trial court in Amritsar in the case. The Waris Punjab De group chief, who styled himself after the slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested in Moga's Rode village on April 23, 2023, following a month-long manhunt launched by Punjab Police after an attack on the Ajnala police station on February 23, 2023. Amritpal and his supporters -- some of them brandishing swords and guns -- had allegedly broken through barricades and barged into the station on the outskirts of Amritsar city, and clashed with police for the release of Waris Punjab De group members. Nine of Amritpal's associates, who had also been detained in the Assam jail, were brought back to Punjab last year.