Mr Atinderpal Singh, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha from the Patiala constituency, is under detention on charges of involvement in various alleged crimes.
Said to be the “chief of the Khalistan Liberation Organization”. He carried a reward of Rs | lakh on his head. He was arrested in October last year.
An activist of the AISSF since 1971 when he was still a school student in Bhopal, he was the President of its Madhya Pradesh unit. He officiated as President of the AISSF after the death of Bhai Amrik Singh during Operation Blue Star.
According to the police, Mr Atinderpal Singh went to Pakistan twice.
In his own words in the preface to “Wanger”, a collection of his poems, he was born on March 30, 1975, at Shahabad Markanda (Haryana).
His father, Mr Tarlok Singh, was a moneylender of Ladhewal (Gujranwala), now in Pakistan. His mother, Purshotam Kaur was a great granddaughter of General Hukam Singh, a trusted officer of Maharaja Ranit Singh.
The family shifted from Bhopal to Nabha in the wake of the 1984 riots.
While in Bhopal, Mr Atinderpal Singh did his graduation from Sofia College, but he dropped out while studying law.
He did a short stint as subeditor in a Hindi daily of Bhopal. Later he edited his own Punjabi monthly “Jaban”.
Married to Kamaljit Kaur, he has a daughter, who was born after his arrest.
In his election manifesto, he promised to work for restoring normalcy in Punjab and maintaining communal harmony.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 29, 1989
