DGP: Mintoo was in touch with Pak terrorist groups

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 28

Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, who was arrested in Delhi, was in touch with terror groups in Pakistan but the jailbreak was planned by local gangsters, Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said here today.

The police, he said, were trying to find out as to who had funded the operation. Calls from the jail suggested that some of the escapees had received money recently.             

On Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal hinting at the possible role of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the DGP said “there is a strong basis that Pakistan’s ISI was in touch with Mintoo”.

Arora said a “post-mortem” of the incident would be undertaken as “clearly serious lapses have taken place”. He said swift co-ordination between various state police had yielded results, leading to the arrest of the two key culprits.

“We have a sequence-by-sequence recording of events, showing lapses by jail security guards, which will be looked into. Some guards did make efforts to retaliate.Timely information provided by them on getaway vehicles and the attackers led to the arrests in UP and Delhi,” the DGP added.