M A I N   N E W S

Beant’s killer Hawara held?
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 7
Has Jagtar Singh Hawara, the alleged assassin of Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh, been arrested by the Punjab Police? Though sources in the Punjab Police headquarters do not rule out the possibility, senior police officers neither confirm, nor deny it.

Punjab’s DGP S.S. Virk said he too had heard the news. “I am trying to verify the authenticity of the information.... I am in touch with senior police officers all over the state.”

The sources, meanwhile, said it was possible that the police had picked up someone on the allegations of committing a criminal offence, without realising that the person arrested was Jagtar Singh Hawara.

“Interrogation of the accused could have revealed his true identity, but nothing can be said for certain at this stage,” the sources asserted. Going into the background of the development, they said information about Hawara’s arrest originated from Patiala late this evening after a person, identical to the alleged militant, was picked up by the police.

The sources, however, added that no special operation to arrest him had been launched by the police as almost everyone was of the opinion that Hawara and his accomplices had crossed over to Pakistan after escaping from Chandigarh’s high-security Model Jail in Burail village.

Hawara and three others, it may be recalled, had tunnelled their way out of the jail last year. Despite best efforts, the Chandigarh and the Punjab Police had failed to nab them.

He was considered the mastermind behind the killing of Beant Singh in a blast outside Punjab Civil Secretariat on August 31, 1995. Hawara, along with other accused, was facing trial for the assassination before his escape, while believed-to-be human bomb Dilawar Singh was killed in the explosion that took Beant Singh’s life.