Indian state extends internet ban in hunt for Sikh separatist

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)
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Updated 20 March 2023
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Indian state extends internet ban in hunt for Sikh separatist

  • Supporters of Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh were filmed vandalizing Indi's consulate in San Francisco
  • Singh has risen to prominence in recent months, demanding creation of separate Sikh homeland

AMRITSAR, India: Indian authorities extended a mobile internet blackout across a state of about 30 million people on Monday as police hunted a radical Sikh preacher.
The blackout extension came as supporters of Amritpal Singh were filmed vandalizing India's consulate in San Francisco, not long after similar disturbances in London.

Authorities in the northern state of Punjab launched a major search on Saturday for Singh, who has risen to prominence in recent months demanding the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland.

Police said on Monday they had arrested 114 people so far but Singh's whereabouts were unknown.
The internet outage, originally in place until noon (0630 GMT) on Monday, was extended for another 24 hours.

Videos posted online, and independently verified by AFP, showed men smashing doors and windows of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco after they broke down barricades set up outside the building.

The phrase #FreeAmritpal had been sprayed on the property as several dozen protesters gathered outside.
An official said the Indian foreign ministry was looking seriously at the clips.

India said it had summoned Britain's top diplomat after Singh's supporters vandalized the outside of the Indian High Commission in London.

India's foreign ministry said there was a "complete absence" of British police and "finds unacceptable the indifference of the UK Government to the security of Indian diplomatic premises and personnel in the UK".
Videos on social media verified by AFP Fact Check showed a man taking down the Indian flag on a balcony of the consulate, watched by a small group below waving yellow Khalistan flags.

Britain's high commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, said on Twitter: "I condemn the disgraceful acts today against the people and premises of the @HCI_London - totally unacceptable."

Punjab -- with about 58 percent Sikhs and 39 percent Hindus -- was rocked by a violent separatist movement for Khalistan in the 1980s and early 1990s in which thousands of people died.

India has often complained to foreign governments over the activities of Sikh hardliners among the Indian diaspora who, it says, are trying to revive the insurgency with a massive financial push.

Singh and his supporters, armed with swords, knives and guns, raided a police station last month after one of the 30-year-old preacher's aides was arrested for alleged assault and attempted kidnapping.

Indian media quoted security sources as saying Singh was backed by arch-rival Pakistan.

Several police were injured in the brazen daytime raid on the outskirts of Amritsar, home to the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple, heaping pressure on authorities to act.

Indian authorities frequently shut down mobile internet services, particularly in the restive northern region of Indian-administered Kashmir.


US military boards sanctioned oil tanker in Indian Ocean

Updated 55 min 16 sec ago
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US military boards sanctioned oil tanker in Indian Ocean

  • Tanker tracking website says Aquila II departed the Venezuelan coast after US forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro
  • Pentagon says it 'hunted' the vessel all the way from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean

WASHINGTON: US military forces boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon said Monday.
The Pentagon’s statement on social media did not say whether the ship was connected to Venezuela, which faces US sanctions on its oil and relies on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.
However, the Aquila II was one of at least 16 tankers that departed the Venezuelan coast last month after US forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro, said Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship’s movements.
According to data transmitted from the ship on Monday, it is not currently laden with a cargo of crude oil.


The Aquila II is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under US sanctions related to the shipment of illicit Russian oil. Owned by a company with a listed address in Hong Kong, ship tracking data shows it has spent much of the last year with its radio transponder turned off, a practice known as “running dark” commonly employed by smugglers to hide their location.
US Southern Command, which oversees Latin America, said in an email that it had nothing to add to the Pentagon’s post on X. The post said the military “conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction” on the ship.
“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the Pentagon said. “It ran, and we followed.”
The US did not say it had seized the ship, which the US has done previously with at least seven other sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela.
A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, would not say what forces were used in the operation but confirmed the destroyers USS Pinckney and USS John Finn as well as the mobile base ship USS Miguel Keith were operating in the Indian Ocean.
In videos the Pentagon posted to social media, uniformed forces can be seen boarding a Navy helicopter that takes off from a ship that matches the profile of the Miguel Keith. Video and photos of the tanker shot from inside a helicopter also show a Navy destroyer sailing alongside the ship.
Since the US ouster of Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has set out to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s petroleum products. Officials in President Donald Trump’s Republican administration have made it clear they see seizing the tankers as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump also has been trying to restrict the flow of oil to Cuba, which faces strict economic sanctions by the US and relies heavily on oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.
Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and that the Cuban government is ready to fall. Trump also recently signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, primarily pressuring Mexico because it has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba.