M A I N   N E W S

punjab’s Dreaded terrorist
Militant ideologue Narain Chaura held
Pawan K Jaiswar/TNS

Amritsar, February 27
Dreaded terrorist and Akal Federation founder Narain Singh Chaura was arrested from Jalalabad village in Tarn Taran late Tuesday evening. Chaura, wanted in connection with the seizure of explosives from a Maruti car near the Amritsar railway station in May 2010, was arrested in a joint operation by the Amritsar and Tarn Taran police.

He was presented in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate KS Sullar at Ropar and remanded in 12-day judicial custody. On the request of the Amritsar police, the court also granted his transit remand.

While the local police remained tight-lipped on Chaura’s arrest during the day, the office of the Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence), Chandigarh, confirmed the arrest in a press release late in the evening.

A police officer said the Amritsar police took Chaura to Gharuan village in Mohali district last night for the recovery of some arms but he refused to cooperate there, forcing it to involve the local CIA staff.

Sources claimed Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini along with senior police officers of the district interrogated Chaura at the CIA staff’s office at Kharar last night.

Chaura’s interrogation led to the seizure of an AK-56 rifle, 20 cartridges, one .30 mauser along with 50 rounds and five hand grenades from a box buried in the Slaimpur riverbed at Kurali in the wee hours of today.

A case under the Explosive Act, the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act has been registered against him at Kurali.

The police also arrested two of his accomplices, Sukhwant Singh and Sukhdev Singh, from Jalalabad village (Tarn Taran) and Pandori village (Majitha), respectively.

They have been booked under Sections 212 and 216 of the IPC at the Verowal and Kamboh police stations. Sukhwant was also booked on charges of unlawful activities.

Chaura’s son Baljinder Singh said the police raided their residence in Dera Baba Nanak around 3 am and seized a laptop, some documents, CPU besides several CDs.

(Inputs: Akash Ghai in Mohali & Arun Sharma in Ropar)