Pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh, who has been in a hide-and-seek mode with the police for the last 12 days, has reportedly returned to Punjab and has plans to surrender.
Last night, the Punjab Police found an abandoned vehicle near Gurdwara Bhai Chanchal Singh in Marnaian village of Punjab's Hoshiarpur, believed to belong to fugitive Amritpal Singh and his aide.
Pro-Khalistan leader Amritpal Singh, who has been in a hide-and-seek mode with the police for the last 12 days, has reportedly returned to Punjab and has plans to surrender.
According to an NDTV report, the radical preacher was planning to give an interview to an international news agency before he surrenders but changed his mind after realising that he had no chance of escaping.
Singh may surrender on Wednesday and present himself before Akal Takth, a News18 report stated.
The Punjab Police launched a massive search operation on Tuesday night in a Hoshiarpur village and many adjoining areas in the state following inputs that Amritpal Singh and his aides could be hiding there.
"The search is going on, but we haven't traced anyone yet," said a police official from Hoshiarpur. He said CCTV footage in the area was also being scanned.
A team of the counterintelligence wing of the Punjab Police Tuesday evening had chased a car from Phagwara after it suspected that fugitive Amritpal and his aide could be in that vehicle, police sources told PTI.
Suspects, who are believed to be three to four in number, abandoned their vehicle near Gurdwara Bhai Chanchal Singh in Marnaian village in Hoshiarpur and fled, the officials said.
A cordon and search operation was launched last night in and around the village while checkposts and barricades were raised on the roads to nab the suspects.
Police had also conducted a door-to-door search operation. The Punjab Police has been on high alert after the pro-Khalistan preacher escaped its dragnet.
Singh remains untraceable since a police crackdown against him and members of his Khalistani 'Waris Punjab De' outfit on March 18, about three weeks after he and his supporters stormed into the Ajnala police station near Amritsar to secure the release of an arrested man.
(With PTI inputs)