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Top Punjab terrorist returned
to India under fictitious name

Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, a dreaded Sikh militant arrested in Amritsar on Wednesday, returned to India on March 9 under a fictitious name from Switzerland. Zaffarwal moved to Switzerland in 1994 from Pakistan following differences with the ISI, a top police official said.

Police used force to arrest Zaffarwal, an associate of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, when he tried to escape, Inspector General of Police (Border) A P Pandey told reporters.

Pandey said during his interrogation, Zaffarwal told the police that he entered the country under the false identity of Charanjit Singh, a resident of Sanghian in Kapurthala district.

Zaffarwal, a member of a committee formed in 1986 which raised the demand for Khalistan, has six murder cases against him.

Pandey told reporters that in 1994 Zaffarwal developed some differences with the Pakistani's Inter-services Intelligence and moved to Switzerland.

During is decade-long stay in Pakistan, Zaffarwal was instrumental in supplying weapons to militants in Punjab, Pandey said.

"Time demanded that I should return to Punjab,"said Zaffarwal when presented before reporters.

Looking fresh and healthy, Zaffarwal was produced before scribes after much insistence by them.

Soon after lensmen clicked his photograph, he was taken away by police.

Zaffarwal was later remanded to police custody till April 20 by a court

The former Khalistan Commando Force chief was produced amid tight security before Judicial Magistrate Sarabjit Singh Dhaliwal.

Intelligence sources said some associates of Zaffarwal were likely to be arrested soon.

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