Arrested Khalistan liberation Force (KlF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo was freely using mobile phone and internet facility during his stay in Punjab’s Nabha jail and was regularly in touch with other Khalistani terror outfits. Wary of calls being intercepted, Mintoo used WhatsApp and Skype calling facility.
Meanwhile, another terrorist Kashmeer Singh, who had fled the Nabha Jail with Mintoo has managed to elude police and several teams are on his trail. A Special Cell team has been sent to Shamli to question Palwinder Singh, who was arrested by Shamli Police while he was on the run.
Palwinder had dropped Kashmeer near Kaithal in Haryana and then proceeded alone as he wanted to escape to Nepal.
Mintoo, who is in the custody of Delhi Police Special Cell, is singing like a Canary. He reportedly told his interrogators that he threw his mobile handset in a nearby field while escaping from the jail. His body search has led police to recover a 9mm pistol of Chinese make and a diary full of addresses and numbers of people he was in touch and communicated from the jail premises.
Police said the notebook recovered from Mintoo is a big lead into busting the network of terrorists who are working behind reviving Sikh militancy in Punjab. A senior police official said they have already started tracking the addresses on the notebook, most of which are in the neighbouring Haryana, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
Investigators have managed to recover Mintoo's mobile phone. A police official involved in the investigations said they were scanning his call data record (CDR) to identify the people he was talking on regular basis. His last was made on WhatsApp call to one Harmeet, an Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agent based at lahore in Pakistan.
Mintoo also told police that he was given Rs 25 lakh for by a common contact between him and Harmeet in order to execute the jail break.
Investigations have revealed that Mintoo had also made a call to Germany and was in touch with one Balaj over there but did not divulge further information on him. Police are yet to verify Mintoo's claims about having ISI handlers to make sure he is not misleading them.
Mintoo had escaped Nabha Jail in Punjab, along with five other prisoners, after armed men in police uniform tricked the sentries into opening the gates of the jail in Patiala, and bolted out with the inmates while firing bullets indiscrimately.Officials said efforts are on to nab the other prisoners who managed to flee.