Jagtar Singh Tara, assassin of former Punjab CM Beant Singh and Babbar Khalsa terrorist was arrested in Thailand on Monday.
Thai National police spokesman Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri said 37-year-old Gurmeet Singh entered Thailand in October and was arrested in the eastern province of Chon Buri yesterday.
A team of Chon Buri provincial police and soldiers raided a house on Soi Mabyailia in tambon Nong Phreu in Bang Lamung district and arrested Singh, one of six Sikh militants convicted for the 1995 blast which also killed several others.
Officers also arrested Pakistani national Ali Alat, 48, the owner of the house. Alat said that he was not aware about Singh's criminal background.
The two men were taken to Nong Phreu police station for interrogation. "We had been following him for a while, but at one point he slipped off the radar," Prawut said.
The swift action followed a recent request by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju to Thai authorities to help capture the terrorist. Rijiju made the request when he visited Bangkok late last year for a UN meet.
On August 31, 1995, as Beant Singh stepped out of his office at the high-security Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh, a suicide bomber Dilawar Singh blew himself up, killing the then chief minister and 17 others. Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case Dilawar had failed in his mission.
After more than 11 years of trial in the Beant Singh assassination case, the CBI Special Court had pronounced death sentence for two convicts, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh, and life imprisonment for three persons, Lakhbir Singh, Gurmit Singh and Shamsher Singh.
Beant Singh was targeted by militants for his firm support to the police in eliminating militancy from Punjab during his term as chief minister. More than 125 militants were gunned down by the police during his term while many others laid down arms under police pressure.
(With agency input)
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