The Department of Immigration (DoI) of Nepal has put the radical Indian Khalistan separatist Amritpal Singh on its surveillance list.
The DoI put Singh on its surveillance list on Monday, a day after the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu wrote to the DoI that Singh may enter Nepal.
According to Jhalakram Adhikari, director general of the DoI, the Indian Embassy had requested the DoI to put Singh on its surveillance list along with his photo.
“The Indian Embassy has sent a letter requesting us to put [Singh] on the surveillance list. He is a member of a separatist group and the embassy suspects he could be hiding somewhere around here,” Adhikari said. “It has also sent us his photo saying he may enter [Nepal] using a fake passport.”
He said that Singh was put on the surveillance list after the embassy wrote to them. According to Adhikari, the embassy had initially sent them a letter without including Singh’s photo but it wrote to them again after the DoI said that Singh’s photo was also required.
Adhikari said the embassy suspects Singh could be in Nepal but nobody knows whether he has entered Nepal or not.
Singh is on the wanted list of Indian police. He has been accused of attempted murder, obstructing law enforcement and creating disharmony.
According to NDTV, Punjab Police arrested one Balwant Singh of Khanna city in Ludhiana district of Punjab on Sunday. Police said he provided shelter to Tejinder Singh Gill, a close aide of Amritpal Singh.
Delhi Police and Punjab Police had conducted a search operation to arrest Amritpal last Friday. An alert was also issued to police in Dehradun, Haridwar and Uddham Singh Nagar of Uttarakhand around the same time citing the possibility of Amritpal Singh entering the state. But Delhi Police later said that he must have already left the country.
According to a high-placed police source, Nepal Police is also on alert following reports that Amritpal Singh was on the wanted list of Indian police.
The source said that police are on alert to monitor activities in a neighboring country, but added that they have not received any official letter.
“Official information has not arrived. But we found out through news reports. We are always alert about incidents happening in the neighborhood. So we have been obtaining information and are also on alert,” the source said.
