Pak behind jailbreak, wants to revive terror: Punjab govt

Amritsar (Punjab): Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Sunday set up a Special Task Force to track the movement of Khalistan Liberation Front terrorist Harminder Singh Mintoo and four other prisoners who had escaped from Punjab's Nabha Jail this morning.

He said that the Director General of Police (Jail) has been suspended, while the Superintendent and the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the jail have been dismissed.

Badal said that a separate Additional Director General of Police-led team has been tasked to assess the incident that led to the jail break.

"The state home Secretary will give me a report on wherever lapses have taken place and strict action will be taken on the responsible one," Badal told media here.

Badal blamed Pakistan for the jailbreak, claiming that the neighbour wanted to revive terror in the state after India's surgical strikes.

The Punjab government announced a reward of Rs 25 lakhs to any person providing information leading to the arrest of six escaped under-trial prisoners.

He also said that his government will ensure that the incident will not have any adverse impact on the sixth Heart of Asia Conference scheduled to be held in Amritsar on December 3.

On Sunday, around 10 men, masquerading in police uniform, broke into the jail and helped Harminder Mintoo and four of his cohorts to escape.

The four prisoners have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, Vicky Gondra, Nitin Deol and Vikramjeet Singh.

Mintoo was arrested by Punjab Police from Delhi's IGI airport on November 2014 while he was on his way back from Thailand.

The 47-year-old is wanted in 10 terror-related cases, including the 2008 attack on Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and the 2010 recovery of explosives at Halwara Air Force station.

He is wanted for plotting the killings of three Punjab Shiv Sena leaders