Minimum resistance from guards

Nabha jailbreak: 3 escapees were active on Facebook from prison

Heavy firing from a group of armed men, who stormed the Nabha central jail on Sunday to free six inmates, including KLF militant Harminder Singh Mintoo, was met with minimum resistance from the jail guards despite having automatic guns at their disposal.

The Special Investigating Team (SIT) constituted to probe the daring jailbreak is seeking answers to why there was no effective retaliatory fire from the jail security guards.

Despite jammers in place, and Internet and mobile phones made unavailable, three gangsters who managed to flee on Sunday had been active on social media from inside the prison.

One of them was active on Facebook till Saturday afternoon, a day before he managed to escape the high security jail.

Gurpeet Sekhon, on the run after his escape from jail, who is facing over a dozen criminal cases, on Saturday posted his picture and message on Facebook saying, “Kaam aisa Karo k Naam Ho jaye...” (Do something which gets you fame).

The fact that the four gangsters and two militants, including KLF chief Mintoo, had prior information about the attack on the jail, the timing of the attack and the modus operandi gives credence to two possibilities.

One, that there were insiders conspiring to facilitate the “great escape”, and the other of technology in place to connect both ends. All these angles are being probed by the SIT.

Three gangsters, Vicky Gondar, Neeta Deol and Gurpreet Sekhon had a sizeable following on Facebook. Vicky Gondar is followed by 13,000 people on his Facebook page.

He was last active on social media from inside the Nabha jail on November 21 when he greeted a student who had won his college election. Many of them had also been posting messages on social evil on Facebook, like the one that read, “Say no to Drugs”.