A Sikh militant leader was arrested by police yesterday, 24 hours after a sensational jailbreak in which armed men helped him and five others escape from a high-security prison in Punjab.
Harminder Singh Mintoo, 49, chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force, who escaped from Nabha Jail, was arrested from the Nizamuddin railway station in south Delhi.
Five other prisoners, including another Sikh militant and four gangsters, who escaped along with Mintoo, are still on the run.
“Police have interrogated Mintoo at length following the arrest. We are working on the information and making raids to catch the other fugitives,” senior police officer Daljeet Chowdhary told reporters.
“He was arrested between 1 and 2am,” Special Commissioner of Delhi Police Arvind Deep said.
“He reached Delhi by changing a number of buses and was headed from Nizamuddin to Panvel (in Maharashtra).”
His plan was to then travel to Goa and from there flee the country, a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity.
According to the officer, Mintoo, after his escape, entered Haryana, where he took a bus from Kurukshetra to Panipat and then boarded another bus to reach Delhi.
An earlier report said the arrest followed a joint operation by Punjab and Delhi police.
Asked if this was true, Deep said the Punjab police had “alerted us that Mintoo might go towards Delhi. So we formed several teams which kept vigil at strategic locations. He was spotted by our men at the Nizamuddin station.”
The other terrorist who escaped on Sunday was Kashmir Singh Galwadi.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said a report had been sought from the Punjab government and promised the central government’s assistance to catch those on the run.
“The Home Ministry has been doing whatever needs to be done,” Singh said.
“This (jailbreak) is a state subject and the Home Ministry has already sent advisories to states in this regard. The state (Punjab) government is looking into the matter,” he said.
A New Delhi court later in the remanded Mintoo sent to seven days police custody.
Delhi police told the court they were probing his links with Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh allowed police to question Mintoo till December 5.
The police filed a fresh terror case against Mintoo.
They told the court that Mintoo was earlier a member of the banned terror organisation Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a Khalistani militant group, but later joined the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), of which he later became the chief.
The police also said Mintoo had gone to Pakistan and attended a training programme conducted by the ISI.
According to media reports, a dozen armed men disguised as policemen reached the gates of the jail on Sunday morning with two handcuffed men, claiming they were criminals.
After gaining entry, they reportedly fired more than 100 rounds and left with the prisoners in four cars.
On Sunday evening, the Uttar Pradesh police arrested Parminder Singh alias Painda, who allegedly played a key role in planning and executing the jailbreak, from Kairana in Shamli district. He was driving one of the SUVs used in the escape.
The Punjab government sacked two senior prison officials - superintendent and deputy superintendent, suspended the additional director general of police and formed an special team to probe the jailbreak.
It ordered a separate inquiry committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Jagpal Singh Sandhu to look into the “security lapses”.
Punjab saw a secessionist militant movement in the 1980s that led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians, security personnel and insurgents.
The movement died down in the early 1990s following strong police action and a gradual fall in public support.
Mintoo: arrested
