Jagtar Singh Tara, the Khalistani militant arrested in Thailand on Tuesday morning, will shortly be extradited to India and handed over to the Punjab police.
The top strategist of Babbar Khalsa International, convicted for his involvement in the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, was among the four persons who escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh by digging a tunnel in 2004.
Sources in the Punjab police said a special team that had gone to Thailand in September last to track down some terrorists spotted Tara. However, he managed to escape the dragnet laid by Interpol and Thai and Malaysian agencies that worked on the leads from India, especially the Punjab police.
In November last, when another terrorist Ramandeep Singh alias Goldy was arrested and extradited to India from Malaysia, Inspector-General of Royal Malaysian Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had said security forces would track down Tara too.
Tara was among the seven militants convicted for their involvement in the August 31, 1995 killing of Beant Singh in a suicide blast at the entrance of the Punjab and Haryana civil secretariat. Tara was arrested a few days later. Along with Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, also convicted in the case, Tara and Dev Kumar carried out the sensational jail break. While Hawara and Bheora were nabbed, Tara remained at large.
