New Delhi: Former Punjab CM Beant Singh's assassin Jagtar Singh 'Tara' was arrested in Thailand on Monday.
Tara was nabbed by Thai authorities on a tip-off about his movements by the Punjab Police. As per reports, he was arrested from the house of a man who was sheltering Tara at the behest of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
Self-styled commander of terror outfit Khalistan Tiger Force, Jagtar Singh 'Tara' was one of the masterminds in the brutal assassination of Beant Singh by a human bomb outside Punjab Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Besides Beant Singh, 17 others had lost their lives in the blast.
At that time, Tara and other assassins - Paramjit Singh Bheora and Jagtar Singh Hawara - were members of the Babbar Khalsa. Tara later broke away to form his own terror outfit 'Khalistan Tiger Force'.
The suicide bombing was carried out by Dilawar Singh Jaisinghvala of Khalistan Liberation Force. Standby bomber Balwant Singh Rajoana was also convicted for the killing and later sentenced to death. However, various Sikh groups protested against the sentence leading to the government staying his execution in 2012.
However, the three along with their accomplice Dev Singh made a sensational escape from high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh in 2004. They reportedly dug a nearly 100 feet long tunnel with their bare hands from their barrack to a spot outside the jail.
While Hawara and Bheora were later nabbed from Nepal, Tara and Dev Singh had slipped into Pakistan.
Tara later moved base to Thailand on a Pakistani passport. Dev Singh is believed to be still in Pakistan.
In November last year, Thailand had deported Khalistan Liberation Force chief and terrorist Harminder Singh alias Mintoo and his aide. The duo were tracked by police in Thailand's capital Bangkok.
