The police in Punjab, which is governed by the Aam Aadmi Party, arrested anti-Khalistani activist Arshdeep Singh Saini on 30 November after he shared a post on social media raising concerns about changing population patterns in Ludhiana.

He had written about what he believed was a growing number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the city and suggested that this trend was starting to affect the area’s social and business landscape. His arrest, confirmed by the Ludhiana Police on 3 December, was described as a response to “posting social media content to create disharmony and discord.”

Saini, who returned to India from the United Kingdom in 2014, had been living in Punjab’s Rupnagar district. On the platform X, he built a following of around 13,000 people and publicly identified himself as “Ram Das, Nationalist, Hindu Sikh.” His posts often focused on issues he saw as threats to national unity, and he made a point of positioning himself against Khalistani ideology.

The post that triggered the action from the authorities was later removed from his account, but before being deleted, it expressed his concern that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were settling in parts of Ludhiana and affecting the local demographic balance. He claimed that this change was becoming visible in everyday life and in areas where small-scale businesses operate.

On 27 November, Saini wrote on X: “Ludhiana is the first city of Punjab that will witness, if not already, rapid demographic change, as more and more illegal Bangladeshi continue to settle and capture the business ecosystem, starting with fruit & vegetable, and other menial tasks. Increasing number of mosques in the city stand witness,” Saini wrote.

A day later, on 28 November, the Ludhiana Cyber Crime Police filed an FIR against him. The case was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act, noting concerns about the impact of his posts.

Ludhiana Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma spoke to the media on Wednesday and said that Saini had been using X to upload posts that were “provocative, communal in tone, potentially capable of spreading discord and disharmony in society and inflammatory.” He added that the police believed the posts might be tied to a “tool kit to spread disharmony in Punjab at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).”

Sharma further explained that early monitoring by the Cyber Crime unit suggested that the content Saini shared targeted multiple religious communities, including Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims. According to him, the pattern of posts and the type of engagement they received suggested a deliberate effort to stir tension between groups living in the state. He stated that the nature of the responses and the background of some of the followers raised concerns about a coordinated strategy.

Saini had regularly posted against individuals and organisations he accused of being anti-India or connected to Khalistani networks. Shortly before his arrest, he commented on a US-based Khalistani figure named JS Dhaliwal, who he claimed was supporting Pakistan over India. On 30 November, he wrote: “What could be the reason for #Khalistanis having sharp bleeding pain in their butts on India taking Sindh from Pakistan?”