Thai police nab fugitive Sikh militant
Man was wanted for 1995 bomb attack that killed Indian state's chief minister
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:35am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 07 January, 2015, 5:35am
Associated Press in Bangkok
Singh on his arrest. Photo: EPA
Thai police said that they have arrested a fugitive convicted in India for his involvement in a 1995 bomb attack that killed a chief minister of a northern Indian state and 15 other people.
Gurmeet Singh, one of six Sikh militants convicted for the blast outside government headquarters in Punjab state, fled a high-security Indian prison in 2004 before receiving a life sentence in 2007.
The bomb, planted in then-Chief Minister Beant Singh's bulletproof car, exploded and immediately killed the state's highest elected official and 12 of his staff and armed guards. Three others who were wounded died later.
The Babbar Khalsa International, a Sikh separatist group, claimed responsibility for the assassination.
Singh, also known as Jagtar Singh Tara, entered Thailand in October and was arrested Monday in the eastern province of Chonburi, Thai national police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thawornsiri said.
"It took quite some time to arrest him. We had been following him for a while, but at one point he slipped off the radar," he said yesterday.
Prawut said Singh, 37, faces extradition to India.
An official from India's Ministry of External Affairs said the ministry was aware of the arrest and was in touch with Thai authorities.
"All those who have committed heinous crimes in India will be pursued wherever they are," said the official. Beant Singh, became Punjab's chief minister in 1992 and began crushing the Sikh militancy, leaving hundreds dead in encounters with police.
