Indian police are searching for a separatist leader who has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland, stirring fears of violence in northwestern Punjab state where there's a history of bloody insurgency.
Police have accused Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, and his aides of creating discord in the state, which is haunted by the memories of an armed insurgency in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. The insurgency had prompted a controversial military operation by the Indian government that killed thousands of people, according to official estimates.
Very little is known about Singh, who for years drove a truck in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He emerged in 2022 in Punjab and began leading marches calling for protecting rights of Sikhs who account for about 1.7% of India's population. On Sunday, supporters of the movement pulled down the Indian flag at the country's high commission in London and smashed the building's window in a show of anger against the move to arrest Singh. India's foreign ministry denounced the incident and summoned the U.K.'s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it called the breach of security at the embassy in London.
The supporters of the Khalistan movement also vandalized the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Monday.
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