Crusade against drugs, not 'Khalistan', draws crowds to Amritpal's proxy campaign in Khadoor Sahib

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Key Points

A crowd of more than hundred people, including women and children, are waiting in a pandal erected on the roadside for Bapu Tarsem Singh to address them...

After a delay of over an hour, Bapu Tarsem Singh enters the pandal with a group of supporters..

Bapu Tarsem Singh is the father of Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, who is incarcerated in the Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act (NSA) for the past over one year for activities prejudicial to the security of India and the maintenance of public order...

The 10-point manifesto printed on yellow handouts include the end of drug culture and extortions in Punjab; justice in sacrilege cases; struggle for the release of the Bandi Singhs; containment of both inward and outward migration; reduction in soil, water and air pollution; improvement in the economic status of farm labour; containment of religious conversions through the use of misinformation and monetary benefits; protection of the properties of NRI Punjabis; opening of international trade through Punjabs borders and economic and social protection to traders community...

In an interview to ThePrint, Amritpals father Tarsem Singh said that Badal had no right to talk about central agencies considering it was in power with the BJP for such a long time in Punjab...