Ex-Punjab CM Beant Singh’s assassin arrested in Thailand
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Bangkok: Authorities in Thailand have arrested a fugitive man convicted for his involvement in a bomb attack in 1995 that killed former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and at least 15 other people, an AP report said on Tuesday.
Gurmeet Singh, one of six Sikh militants convicted for the blast outside government headquarters in Punjab, fled a high-security prison in Chandigarh in 2004 before receiving a life sentence in 2007.
The bomb, planted in Singh’s bulletproof car, exploded and immediately killed the former chief minister 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.
Gurmeet, also known as Jagtar Singh Tara, entered Thailand in October 2014 and was arrested on Monday in the eastern province of Chonburi, the report said quoting Thai National police spokesman Lt. Gen. Prawut Thawornsiri.
“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.
Lt. Gen. Prawut said Gurmeet faces extradition to India.
