Chandigarh, Apr 18 (PTI) The Punjab government is learnt to have decided to extend the detention of radical preacher and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh under the National Security Act by a year, sources said on Friday.

Singh (32), currently lodged in a prison in Assam’s Dibrugarh, was detained under the National Security Act (NSA) after his arrest on April 23, 2023.

Earlier, the state government did not extend the detention of Singh’s nine associates, who have been brought back to Punjab from the Dibrugarh jail.

Arrested in connection with the 2023 Ajnala police station attack, these nine aides were brought back to Punjab in batches after their detention under the NSA ended.

They have been identified as Basant Singh, Bhagwant Singh alias Pradhan Mantri Bajeke, Gurmeet Singh Gill alias Gurmeet Bukkanwala, Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi alias Daljeet Singh Kalsi, Gurinderpal Singh Aujla alias Guri Aujla, Harjeet Singh alias Chacha, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal alias Kulwant Singh, Varinder Johal and Pappalpreet Singh.

Amritpal Singh, chief of the outfit ‘Waris Punjab De’, successfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as an Independent nominee from Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran district.

The radical preacher, who styled himself after slain Khalistani militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was arrested from Rode village in Moga district on April 23, 2023, following over a month-long manhunt.

The Khalistani sympathiser escaped the police net in Jalandhar district on March 18, 2023, by switching vehicles and changing his appearance.

Punjab Police launched the crackdown after the February 23, 2023, Ajnala incident in which Amritpal and his supporters, some of them brandishing swords and guns, allegedly broke through the barricades, barged into the police station on the outskirts of Amritsar, and clashed with the cops for the release of his aides.

Amritpal and his aides were booked on charges of spreading disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel and creating obstructions in the lawful discharge of duty by public servants. PTI CHS SUN ARI