Indian police arrest Sikh separatist after month-long hunt

FILE PHOTO: Amritpal Singh, a radical Sikh leader, leaves the holy Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple along with his supporters, in Amritsar, India, March 3, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian police have arrested Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh after searching for him for more than a month, a state police official said on Sunday, a move against the revival of an independent homeland in the state of Punjab bordering Pakistan.

The rise of Singh, a preacher in the northwestern state of Punjab where Sikhs are in the majority, has revived talk of an independent Sikh homeland and stoked fears of a return to violence that killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and early 1990s during a Sikh insurgency.