Convicted Indian militant arrested in Thailand

BANGKOK

Thai police have arrested an Indian national convicted of a 1995 attack in India that killed a state chief minister and 17 other people, Thai media reported Tuesday.

Jagtar Singh, 37, was captured Monday evening in the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya during a raid by Thai police and military officers on a house owned by a Pakistani national named Ali Alat, according to the Bangkok Post.

Jagtar Singh was sentenced to life imprisonment in India in 1996 for having masterminded a suicide bombing attack against Punjab state’s chief minister, Beant Singh, only to escape from a high security prison in Chandigarh, Punjab, with three of his accomplices in 2004.

Alat has told Thai police that he did not know Singh’s background, saying he offered him Jan. 1 $900 to rent his Pattaya home for a few days. But, according to the Hindustan Times, Ali Alat’s real name is Khalat Bari and he was sheltering Singh - nicknamed “Tara” - at the behest of the Pakistani intelligence service.

The Indian newspaper also affirmed that Singh spent several years in Pakistan after his escape before travelling to Thailand last year.

The court said that Singh was a member of the Babbar Khalsa Sikh militant group at the time of the bomb attack, saying he organized the suicide bombing against Beant, the 73-year-old Punjab chief who had overseen a crackdown on armed Sikh militants.

The minister’s car and two escort vehicles were torn to pieces in the blast which altogether killed 18 people.

Singh is alleged to have later joined the Khalistan Tiger Force, another Sikh armed group.

Aware that Singh had been hiding in Thailand since the middle of last year, Indian authorities had sought the cooperation of Thai officials.

Thai police officials said Tuesday that they will surrender Jagtar Singh to the Indian embassy.

www.aa.com.tr/en