INDIAN police arrested a separatist leader today following a five-week manhunt after his revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland.

Amritpal Singh had been on the run since last month when he captured national attention in February, after hundreds of his supporters stormed a police station in Ajnala, a town in Punjab state, with wooden batons, swords and guns to demand the release of a jailed aide.

Punjab state police tweeted that Mr Singh had been arrested in Moga, a town in the state.

A Sikh religious leader, Jasbir Singh Rodde, said Mr Singh surrendered to police after offering morning prayers at a Sikh shrine in Moga. 

Police officer Sukhchain Singh Gill said police had surrounded the local village on intelligence that Mr Singh was in the shrine. 

Mr Gill said: “Relentless pressure built by the police over the past 35 days left Singh with no choice.”

He said the police did not enter the shrine, implying that Mr Singh had been taken into custody after he left. 

Punjab suffered a bloody insurgency in the 1980s that led to the killing of India’s then-prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards at her official residence in New Delhi.

Her killing triggered bloody rioting by her Hindu supporters against Sikhs in northern India.

Tavleen Singh, a political commentator and former journalist who covered the Punjab insurgency in the 1980s, said: “The police took this man out, which is good because had they gone into a gurdwara [Sikh shrine], and started shooting you would have had a reaction from the general populace.”

Police declared Mr Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, a fugitive and accused him and his aides of creating discord in the state, spreading disharmony among people, attempted murder, attacking police personnel and obstructing public servants’ lawful discharge of duty.