Another member of Waris de Punjab, who is believed to be a bodyguard of pro-Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh, has been shifted to Assam’s Dibrugarh Central Jail on Monday, officials said.
Amritpal Singh’s gunman, identified as Varinder Johal, was arrested in Punjab last week under the National Security Act (NSA) and a team of the Punjab police on Monday morning escorted him to the Dibrugarh Central Jail.
Johal is the eighth detainee from Punjab to be shifted to Assam in nine days. Deputy commissioner of Dibrugarh, Biswajit Pegu on March 22 said this arrangement is a matter of Centre-state collaboration.
The first batch of arrested members of the Waris De Punjab were flown to Assam on March 19. All four of them were booked under NSA, according to the Punjab police. On March 21, Amritpal Singh’s uncle Harjeet Singh and two others were shifted to Dibrugarh Central Jail from Punjab.
The Assam police have tightened the security arrangements in surrounding areas of the jail following their transfer. Inspector general of police (law and order), Assam, Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan on March 20 visited the Dibrugarh Central Jail to review the security arrangements. However, he refused to make any comment on this.
Superintendent of police of Dibrugarh, Shwetank Mishra on Thursday told HT that additional arrangements have been made and they are keeping a strict vigil in the surrounding areas of the jail.
Additional CCTV cameras have been installed at the entire outer boundaries and the number of cameras has been increased in the internal areas as well, officials familiar with the matter said.
The Assam police’s Black Panther Commando, a specially trained commando Battalion to deal with counter insurgency operations, have been deployed outside the Dibrugarh jail, they said.
The internal security arrangements are being looked after by the Assam Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and specially trained jail guards.
Apart from Harjeet Singh, the Punjab police brought Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal and Gurinder Pal Singh to Dibrugarh Central Jail on March 21. The other four have been identified as Daljeet Singh Kalsi, Bhagwant Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Pradhanmantri Bajeka.