At least 10 armed men on Sunday morning stormed the high-security Nabha Central Jail in Patiala and freed Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo and five other gangsters.
The men were dressed in police uniform and fired over 150 rounds, leaving two policemen injured. The meticulously planned operation lasted just about 12 minutes.
Mintoo, who was arrested in 2014 by the Punjab Police on his return from Thailand, is an accused in 10 terror cases.
Later, one of the persons involved in the conspiracy to free the inmates, Parminder Singh, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police near Shamli. Arms and ammunition were recovered from Parminder, who confessed that he was part of the group involved in Sunday’s jailbreak, the police said.
The armed men arrived in two vehicles and entered the jail on the pretext of dropping an inmate. Flanked by a handcuffed accomplice, they argued with the guard to let them in as they were in police uniform. The accused, who managed to flee, were alerted in advance and reached the designated area to escape.
The armed men then went further inside and managed to overpower the guards inside. They opened heavy fire, which was responded by ineffective resistance from the jail staff. The accused, including Mintoo and gangster Kashmir Singh, were hurriedly frisked away. A massive manhunt is underway.
An alert has been sounded in all the neighbouring states. The Centre has sought a report from the state government on details of the jailbreak. The incident is being viewed as an attempt to disrupt law and order in Punjab ahead of the Assembly elections.
The Punjab government has announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh for any information on the incident. A special task force has been set up. Lapses in police and jail security have come to the fore. Additional DG (Jails) has been suspended.
The jail superintendent and deputy superintendent of the Nabha Central Jail have been sacked.
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