Jailbreak militant nabbed in a day

Harminder Singh Mintoo comes out of court in New Delhi on Monday.
Picture by Prem Singh

TT, New Delhi, Nov. 28: Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh Mintoo was arrested from a Delhi railway station this morning a day after a dramatic jailbreak in Punjab, having apparently shot himself in the foot by making a phone call last night.

Police said that Mintoo, who had escaped from a jail in Patiala along with five other prisoners yesterday morning, had come to Nizamuddin railway station to catch a train to Goa.

"A semi-automatic pistol along with six live cartridges were recovered from his possession," special commissioner of police Arvind Deep said.

Mintoo's aide Kashmira Singh, one of those involved in the jailbreak, gave the cops the slip from the station, police sources said.

Officers said that Mintoo and Kashmira had travelled to Panipat in Haryana on a Toyata Fortuner after the jailbreak and then boarded a bus to Delhi. But Mintoo then slipped up.

"He made a call from a mobile phone late on Sunday night. It was intercepted by the intelligence agencies. All border posts between Delhi and Haryana were immediately put on alert," an officer said.

"We had a photograph of Mintoo. As soon as we saw a person resembling him at the station, we approached him. When he saw us, he started walking briskly. When we intercepted him, he whipped out a pistol but was overpowered."

He added: "We suspect that Kashmira is still in Delhi. Raids are on to nab him. All exit routes have been sealed and the police in neighbouring states have been put on high alert."

A court has remanded Mintoo in seven days' police custody.

Mintoo, who is in his late 40s, was born in Jalandhar but his family shifted to Goa in 1989.

He was initially a member of Babbar Khalsa International. In 2009, he revived the Khalistan Liberation Force and began operating from Thailand and Malaysia.

He was arrested from Delhi airport in November 2014. Mintoo is accused in 10 terror cases, including a 2008 attack on Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Officers said Mintoo had been mobilising funds for his outfit and radicalising youths over the Internet. He had allegedly made several trips to Pakistan, from where he received funds and the support of spy agency ISI.