Mintoo’s death snaps link between Khalistan outfits

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 18

Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, who died in the Nabha jail on Wednesday, played a key role in making plans to revive terrorism in Punjab in the past decade.

Mintoo is listed in the Punjab Police records as the brain behind a number of terror killings; the main fund-raiser for terror activities; organiser of terror modules and the vital link between organisations based abroad, having the common agenda of backing pro-Khalistan elements in Punjab and elsewhere.

He was an expert in brainwashing youths, said an official who had interrogated him recently. The official added that Mintoo almost succeeded in establishing a chain of contacts among Punjab gangsters, narco-smugglers, Pakistan-based ISI and banned Khalistan organisations. “He was surely the brain behind the Nabha jailbreak,” the official said.

Known as a master of disguise, he lived under different identities in Europe, besides Goa. He kept Thailand as his main base and frequently travelled to Pakistan.

He first came into limelight when he was accused of being the mastermind behind the assassination of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat chief Rulda Singh in Patiala in July 2009. He was arrested in November 2014 from Thailand. “He used to travel on a new identity and a passport every time,” revealed an official.

In 2008, he had revived the almost defunct Khalistan Liberation Force, a banned terror organisation that came into existence in 1986 during the height of terrorism. Mintoo became its chief in 2010 after the killing of Rulda Singh.

He was also named in several terror cases, including for the attacks on Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three Shiv Sena leaders.