Burail Jail Break, 2004: Difference between revisions

With the arrest of a former terrorist trained in Pakistan, Narain Singh Chaura, Chandigarh police on Friday claimed to have exposed the conspiracy leading to the Burail jailbreak.

A resident of Chaura village near Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district, Chaura has links with a human bomb, Manjit Singh Fauji, who had entered the country last year. Fauji, in turn, has connections with Pakistan-based Babbar Khalsa leaders Mahil Singh and Wadhwa Singh.

Police claimed that Chaura, one of the ‘‘main conspirators’’, had visited the jail a few days before the escape and met Hawara, along with human rights activist Maj Gen Narinder Singh (retd), defence lawyer of the escapees Arunjeev Singh Walia and an unidentified couple.

Interestingly, the jail authorities had written to the UT police that some suspicious-looking people had come to meet Hawara whose antecedents should be checked. However, the police dismissed it as a routine manner. The police said that Chaura, a former president of the Akal Federation, arranged for the money and vehicles used in the escape. He was the one who disrupted the power supply to the jail on the night the three Beant case accused fled.Sources said that Hawara had asked Chaura to meet a woman carrying a ‘‘red handerkerchief ’’. After Chaura met the woman, wife of a former terrorist, a call was received on her cellphone, which said that ‘‘Prince’’ (code name for Hawara) would call back.

Hawara called from a cellphone and asked Chaura to attend the marriage of slain terrorist Gurbachan Singh Manochahal’s niece at Guru Asra Trust in Mohali on January 18. He also also told him to hand over the money to the woman he had met in the gurdwara.

Hawara again called the woman on the cellphone on January 18 and asked Chaura to purchase a new mobile phone with a new sim card and then contact him. Chaura complied, and the day of the escape was fixed as January 21. The escape was noticed early next day.