{"id":623585,"date":"2023-03-30T09:49:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/a-manhunt-in-india-left-27-million-people-without-mobile-internet\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T09:49:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:49:18","slug":"a-manhunt-in-india-left-27-million-people-without-mobile-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/a-manhunt-in-india-left-27-million-people-without-mobile-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"A Manhunt in India Left 27 Million People Without Mobile Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Manish Kumar runs<\/span> a car rental service in the city of Jalandhar in India\u2019s northern state of Punjab. For the past two weeks, his business has been struggling\u2014starting on March 18, when, for four days, mobile internet was shut down across large areas of the state on the order of the government. Many of his customers use Google Pay to pay their bills. \u201cMost people these days prefer to pay via ecommerce,\u201d he said. \u201cThe shutdown meant they couldn\u2019t do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

From March 18 to 21, 27 million people across Punjab were left without mobile internet access, disrupting lives and businesses. In some districts, the blackout went on for more than a week. As the government tried to stop the spread of information\u2014or, in its words, \u201cfake news\u201d\u2014it demanded that Twitter block more than 120 accounts, from those belonging to local journalists to that of Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh.<\/p>\n

It was all to hunt for one man\u2014a 30-year-old Sikh separatist, Amritpal Singh Sandhu.<\/p>\n

Sandhu is a preacher, and a prominent figure in a movement demanding the creation of an independent state for the Sikh community, known as Khalistan. The movement has sympathizers among the large Sikh diaspora, particularly in the UK and Canada, but Indian officials treat it as a threat to national security.<\/p>\n

Sandhu\u2019s rise in Punjab politics has been rapid. Until last year, he was based in Dubai, working for his family\u2019s transport business. Then, in March 2022, he became a surprise choice as head of Waris Punjab De, a pressure group founded to advocate for farmers\u2019 rights in Punjab. In August, he returned to Punjab.<\/p>\n

The manner of his arrival seemed calibrated to drive attention on social media. He landed dressed like a famous Sikh militant, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed by government forces inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. Sandhu\u2019s supporters posted the image across multiple Facebook pages, attention started to snowball online, and his profile grew until his story broke out on mainstream media.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was clean-shaven until a year ago,\u201d says Hartosh Singh Bal, executive editor of The Caravan<\/em> magazine, who has written extensively about Punjab. \u201cSuddenly, he comes into Punjab, claims many things, grows his hair, baptizes himself, and grows a following. There is a huge amount of construction in this man, who never had support on the ground on any large level.\u201d<\/p>\n

His reach also grew among the huge Sikh diaspora. Many families have members overseas, the result of\u00a0emigration waves\u2014one of which came after huge riots sparked by Bhindranwale\u2019s death. Money from the diaspora supports causes and politicians, making overseas Sikhs influential in the state\u2019s political life.<\/p>\n

Then, in February, Sandhu and a group of armed supporters stormed a police station in Ajnala, 15 miles from Amritsar in Western Punjab, in retaliation for the arrest of one of his aides. Six police officers were injured. The event gave Sandhu an aura, Bal said. But it was a while before the authorities finally started their operation to find him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Parth M.N.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manish Kumar runs a car rental service in the city of Jalandhar in India\u2019s northern state of Punjab. For the past two weeks, his business has been struggling\u2014starting on March 18, when, for four days, mobile internet was shut down across large areas of the state on the order of the government. Many of his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":623586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,114093,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-623585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india","8":"category-manhunt","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}