Pak spy agency planned a Hollywood-style rescue for Beant-killer Tara
Tara
why was Tara extradited in two days??
Jupinderjit Singh
ISI was planning an ‘Argo’ film kind of rescue operation for Tara (pic). ‘Argo’ was a political thriller based on a famous US-Canada joint operation of the rescue of six US diplomats from Tehran by showing them as part of a film
The ISI was supposed to send a 20-member cultural troupe to Thailand
Tara was supposed to take the place of one of the members when the troupe returned
The cultural troupe did visit Thailand but Tara could not move out due to vigil
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 18
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan was planning an ‘Argo’ film-kind of rescue operation for the Beant Singh assassin Jagtar Singh Tara to help him flee from Thailand in the garb of a member of a cultural troupe from Pakistan around Christmas last.
Highly placed sources revealed the Punjab police got a whiff of the plan from their sources in a European country. The police were already on the trail of the Khalistan Tiger Force chief Jagtar Singh Tara in Thailand. It increased surveillance and presence at exit points. A Major-rank officer with the ISI is said to have shared the plan with a UK-based operative, who further leaked it.
‘Argo’ film was a political thriller based on a famous US-Canada joint operation of the rescue of six US diplomats from Tehran by showing them as part of a film crew. They were trapped in Tehran following an attack on the embassy during the 1979-1981 US-Iran crisis. The Punjab police interrogation of Tara so far is concentrating on the weekly dinner meetings of the heads of various terrorists organisations which concentrated on Punjab.
“With the help of the Thailand police and central agencies, we had issued look-out notices for Tara — both for his real identity as well as of the assumed identity of Gurmeet Singh (clean-shaven). As he could not move out, ISI official Major Noor (common name for such ISI officials) hatched the plan to send a 20-member cultural troupe to Thailand.
Tara was supposed to take the place of one of the members when the troupe returned,” said a police official.
Terrorist-supporting organisations in Europe had collected Rs 1.5 crore for the rescue operation of the ISI. Major Noor had hired one Sultan Bari to task his Thailand-based brother Khailat Bari alias Akhtar Bari for help in hiding Tara and felicitating his escape. The cultural troupe did visit Thailand but Tara could not move out due to the vigil on him.
Tara is the third chief of a terrorist organisation arrested by the Punjab police in last six months. A police official revealed that it was a record of sorts that three out of six main terrorist organisations based in Pakistan under the aegis of the ISI were now behind bars in Punjab. The police have in custody Rattandeep Singh, head of Babbar Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTFK); Mintoo, head of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF); and Tara, head of Khalistan Tiger Force.
The other three remaining in Pakistan are Babbar Khalsa headed by Wadhawa Singh Babbar, Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar and Khalistan Zindabad Force Ranjit Singh Neeta.
Police sources said they had information about every movement of Tara. “It was no mean task tracing and arresting Tara. He was a mastermind of the assassination of late Chief Minister Beant Singh and had slipped out of the high-security Burail Jail through a tunnel. Our intelligence network made tracking him possible on foreign soil. We learnt he had reached Thailand in August last year. We ran a check and spotted him at the airport CCTV footage. We told the Thailand police, which wanted us to get an arrest warrant.”
Sources said the warrants were taken in the name of Tara who had, by then, changed his identity. “We even told the Thai police about the locality he was living in there.
Tara didn’t oppose his extradition
A process that usually takes years was completed in two days, say police officials
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 20
Jagtar Singh Tara, Khalistan Tiger Force chief and mastermind behind former Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination, was extradited to India within a mere two days of his arrest as he did not contest the plea moved by New Delhi in Thai court.
Sources in the Punjab Police said Tara himself requested for extradition, a process that usually took years. The extradition, however, does not bar India from giving him death penalty if any court finds him guilty of committing crime under rarest of rare cases.
Tara was arrested on January 5 and the Thai court ordered his extradition on January 7. He was flown to India on January 15 after the completion of various formalities. “Tara’s lawyers and supporters pleaded before the court that his trial should be conducted in some other country. They felt Thai courts were unfair to them. As they could not decide a country where they wanted to face trial, we prevailed upon the court that the accused party’s choice cannot be considered. By then, Tara too filed his appeal,” said an official.
Sources said Rajinder Singh Sohal, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Rajpura, reached Bangkok on January 13 for co-ordination with the Thai authorities. A three-member police team headed by Tejinderjit Singh Virk, DSP (counter-intelligence), reached Bangkok on January 15.
Officials said the arrest was the culmination of an operation taken up by central agencies in August last on the basis of leads provided by the Punjab Police.
Sources said Tara had told investigators that he along with his Pakistan-based associates wanted to carry out killings in Punjab, and that they had even shortlisted some leaders. Tara is learnt to have stayed in Ganganagar, Kurali and Fatehgarh Sahib (at a dera headed by a self-styled woman saint) for a few months before escaping to Pakistan through Nepal and Thailand.
Police officials said he was giving some conflicting replies about his whereabouts after he escaped from the Burail Jail in January 2014. They said his claims were being verified.
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Nice story.
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