Officers of the Punjab police’s Special Operations Group insist that Pal Singh, a French national among five men arrested, allegedly with weapons and armour-piercing ammunition, is a Pakistan-trained weapons expert and a close associate of the BKI’s Narain Chaura.
Chaura, amongst several other crimes, is also wanted for his role in the January 2004 Chandigarh jailbreak wherein he helped top Babbar men Jagtar Hawara, Jagtar Tara and others tunnel their way out of prison.
Officials said Pal Singh was initially only summoned for questioning but placed under arrest when the other suspects spilled the beans and named him as the “kingpin”. According to them, though little known he has been a frequent visitor to terrorist camps in Pakistan since 1989.
The Punjab police has announced a Rs 5-lakh bounty for Narain Chaura, who is also wanted for several recent crimes, including the Amritsar car bomb case where he and his associates parked an RDX-laden car on a crowded thoroughfare outside the city railway station earlier this year.