Nabha jailbreak: Freeing Khalistani militants was not part of the plan, says UP Police

On Sunday evening, Uttar Pradesh Police claimed to have arrested "mastermind" Parminder Singh from Shamli. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has sought a report on the jailbreak.

One of the getaway cars, a Toyota Fortuner, two SLR rifles looted from the prison, two other rifles and a cache of bullets was recovered from Parminder, the police claimed. "He had planned the sensational jailbreak to free three other criminals. Freeing the Khalistani terrorists, including Mintoo, was not part of the plan," Daljeet Chaudhary, ADG, Law and Order, told Catch.

Chaudhary said Singh had himself broken out of jail sometime ago. According to Chaudhary, Parminder had only planned to free Vicky Gondar, Gurpreet Sekhon and Neeta Deol, all members of his gang. "Khalistani terrorists Kashmir Singh Galwadi and Harminder Singh Mintoo, the chief of Khalistan Liberation Force, seem to have used the opportunity to flee," he claimed.

Only one car seems to entered UP, the other vehicles used in the jailbreak were likely to be in Punjab or Haryana, Chaudhary said.

Armed men had stormed the high security Nabha jail and freed six people in an operation which reportedly lasted just 10 minutes.

Mintoo was arrested by the Punjab police from Delhi's IGI airport in 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 also wanted for plotting the killing of three Shiv Sena leaders in Punjab and for planting Improvised Explosive Devices at Halwara Air Force station near Ludhiana in 2010.

Mintoo took over the KLF in 2009 after defecting from Wadhawa Singh-led Babbar Khalsa International.With inputs from ANI