A video of the radical preacher Amritpal Singh surfaced on social media on Wednesday amid speculation that he has returned to Punjab and plans to surrender at the Golden Temple soon.

Wearing a black turban and shawl, Amritpal in a purported video message in Punjabi slammed the state’s police and said if the government had the intention of arresting him, the cops could have gone to his house and he would have surrendered.

In the video, he gave a call for Sarbat Khalsa (a gathering of the entire Sikh community) on the occasion of Baisakhi and appealed to all Sikh organisations across the country and abroad to come and discuss issues related to the community.

Sources in the security agencies said they had seen the video in which Amritpal was heard saying he was not afraid of surrendering.

Amritpal has been on the run since a police crackdown on March 18. While the Punjab police have detained and arrested several of his associates and invoked the stringent National Security Act against at least eight including Amritpal, the separatist preacher and Khalistan sympathiser has continued to elude security forces.

In the video, Amritpal purportedly said the Punjab government had crossed all limits of oppression, framed youngsters and put them in jails, even women and children were not spared. He compared the action to what Beant Singh’s government did in Punjab during the years of militancy. In the video, he said the government action against him was not about his arrest but an attack on the Sikh community.

“This is his first video message after the police crackdown on him and his organisation Waris Punjab De. His location is still unknown but he is believed to be in Punjab and there is speculation that he might surrender soon,” said a security official attached to the Union home ministry.

Sources in the Punjab police said security had been beefed up around the Golden Temple amid rumours that Amritpal might try to reach there and surrender.

Over the past 10 days, at least five video clips — purported CCTV footage from public areas in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana — have been circulating on social media, claiming to show Amritpal and key aide Papalpreet Singh walking or sitting on roadsides, much to the embarrassment of the security agencies that have failed to get a whiff of his whereabouts.

So far, neither the Punjab police nor the central security agencies have commented on where he might be, although there were earlier unconfirmed reports about him fleeing to Nepal. Amritpal had dodged the police in Jalandhar on May 18 and has since kept them at bay, apparently changing vehicles and his appearance multiple times, the police said.