Less than twenty-four hours after the the Special Cell of Delhi police launched a manhunt, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo was arrested on Monday near Delhi-Haryana border.
“Mintoo has been arrested from Delhi railway station by Delhi police,” said a senior official of Punjab police in Chandigarh.
He said Delhi police nabbed the dreaded terrorist on the basis of inputs passed on by Punjab police.
“We passed on the information about Mintoo following which Delhi police arrested him,” official said.
He said a team of Punjab police will go to Delhi to bring him back.
According to sources, Mintoo had made a suspicious phone call to a person in Subhash Nagar in Delhi which was intercepted by police and that led to his arrest.
National Security Adviser(NSA) Ajit Doval congratulated police teams of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and UP on the arrest of Mintoo for their alertness and coordination. The NSA also asked the police chiefs of these states to reward the officers who executed this job.
It is the second arrest in the case. UP police last evening arrested the alleged “mastermind” of the daring daylight jailbreak, Parminder Singh.
On Sunday morning, 10 armed men raided the Jail and managed to free Mintoo and six others. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal suspended top jail officials and formed a SIT to probe the jailbreak.
An eyewitness said, “At around 8 am, ten armed men came to the jail gate in a Verna and a Fortuner car. They were wearing police uniforms and went inside the jail premises without any checking. Later, they sprayed more than 100 rounds of fire at jail security guards and managed to free Khalistan Liberation Force (KLO) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo and four others.”
Also read: Armed men free Khalistani leader Harminder Mintoo from Punjab’s Nabha Jail
As jail security failed to respond to the attack, the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said: “We will look into why our firing was not effective.”
Also read: Who is Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo?
Mintoo, a former member of Babbar Khalsa, was Wanted in 10 terror related cases.
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also holds the Home portfolio, tweeted: “Pak(istan) desperate to revive terror post-surgical strike. Could be behind jail-break.”
Launching a scathing attack on the state government, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said Sukhbir Singh Badal must take responsibility for jailbreak and the state’s home minister must resign over the issue.
The jail-break has put a question mark on security in Punjab ahead of the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference in Amritsar on December 2 and 3, in which top leaders from various countries are expected to participate.
