India cuts off Internet to 27 million people as police hunt down Sikh separatist | CNN

(CNN) — Indian authorities have blocked Internet access for some 27 million people in the state of Punjab for the third day in a row — one of the country’s longest blackouts in recent years — as police search for a fleeing Sikh separatist.

The Punjab government initially announced a 24-hour internet ban on Saturday as authorities launched an operation to arrest Amritpal Singh, a popular leader within the Khalistan separatist movement, which is seeking to establish a sovereign state for followers of the sikh religion

The internet blackout – which affects everyone in the northern Indian state – was extended by the government for a third time until noon on Tuesday, under a law that allows connection to be cut off to “prevent any incitement to violence and any disturbance of peace and public order”.

The Punjab police have justified the internet shutdown as a means to maintain law and order and stop the spread of “fake news”.

Dramatic videotaped scenes broadcast on local television showed hundreds of Singh supporters, some with swords and sticks, marching through the streets of Punjab. Police and paramilitary troops were deployed to various districts of the state in an attempt to maintain order.

At least 112 people have been detained, Punjab police said on Sunday, while Singh remains unaccounted for.

The history of the Sikh separatist movement in India

For decades, some Sikhs have demanded the creation of an independent nation called Khalistan in the state of Punjab for followers of this minority faith. Violent clashes have broken out between supporters of the movement and the Indian government over the years, claiming many lives.

The violence peaked in June 1984, when the Indian army stormed Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, to seize armed separatists, killing thousands and reducing much of the building to rubble. The massacre shocked the Sikh community and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the operation, was later killed by her Sikh bodyguard.

The Khalistan movement is banned and viewed by the Indian government as a serious threat to national security, but maintains some level of support among some Sikhs at home and abroad.

In a statement issued on SundayThe Canadian World Sikh Organization (WSO) condemned the “draconian” Singh detention operation, saying it fears that “Singh’s detention could be used to orchestrate a false encounter and facilitate his extrajudicial killing.”

Over the weekend, some of Singh’s supporters vandalized the Indian High Commissioner in London, prompting British authorities to condemn the incident.

Britain’s High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis called the acts “disgraceful” and “totally unacceptable.”

In a statement issued late on Sunday, the Indian Foreign Ministry said the “UK government is expected to take immediate action to identify, arrest and prosecute” those involved in the incident.

“There is no place in our city for this type of behaviour. The Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into today’s events,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted on Sunday.

Internet outages in India

Internet outages are increasingly common in India, which has more than 800 million Internet users, the second digital population in the world, behind China.

Earlier this month, a report from Access Now, a New York-based group that tracks internet freedom, noted that India imposed 84 internet shutdowns in 2022, marking the fifth consecutive year that the The largest democracy in the world, with more than 1.3 billion inhabitants, tops the global list.

The outages “affected the daily lives of millions of people for hundreds of hours,” according to the report.

The Internet has become a vital social and economic lifeline for large sections of the population, connecting the country’s isolated rural areas with its growing cities.

The government has repeatedly tried to justify blocking Internet access by citing the need to preserve public safety in the face of fear of collective violence. But critics say the blockades are a further blow to the country’s commitment to freedom of expression and access to information.

Manveena Suri contributed to this report from New Delhi.