The Punjab police on Wednesday claimed a major success with the arrest of top militant Narain Singh Chaura by teams from the Tarn Taran and Amritsar district .
According to an official release from the office of the Additional Director-General of Police (Intelligence) here, Chaura was arrested from Jalalabad village in Tarn Taran and his associates Sukhwant Singh and Sukhdev Singh were nabbed from Pandori village under the Majitha police district of Amritsar. All three were arrested late on Tuesday.
The release claimed that following disclosures during initial interrogation of the three, the police raided a hideout in Kurali village of S.A.S. Nagar district near Chandigarh and recovered arms and ammunition. The police have registered a case under various Sections of the law, including the Arms act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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Chaura, who used various pseudonyms — Shamsher Singh alias Shera, Chamkaur Singh and Kapoor Singh Jamraudh — was wanted in around two dozen cases related to terrorist activity. He was associated with organisations such as the Akal Federation and the Khalistan Liberation Army. The police had placed a prize of Rs. 10 lakh for his arrest.
The release detailed that in 1984 Chaura crossed over to Pakistan and was instrumental in smuggling of large consignments of weapons and explosives into Punjab during the initial stages of militancy. While in Pakistan, he authored a book on guerrilla warfare and other “seditious” literature.
Chaura returned to India in 1986, went underground and again crossed over to Pakistan. In 1989, he came back to operate in India under assumed names. He was arrested for his alleged involvement in the sensational Burail jailbreak case here.
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Though he was released on bail in the case in 2005, the police have alleged that in December, 2009 and January, 2010, he procured huge quantities of arms and explosives from Pakistan and distributed the same to terrorist modules in Punjab.
The police have commended the efforts of Sukhdev Singh, who is posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) in Tarn Taran, and Inspector Sanjeev Kumar, posted as SHO at the Civil Lines police station in Amritsar, for tracking and arresting the militants.