Was the recent Nabha jailbreak a comment on lax security in Punjab jails? Or a sign that the separatist movement of the 1980s is dormant but alive?
Social media posts and articles falsely suggest that Jawaharlal Nehru 'signed a bond' or 'used his father's influence' to escape from serving a prison term in Nabha in 1923. Utkarsh Mishra reveals the true story. The first of a series of occasional columns correcting social media's false take on History.
A group of armed men in police uniform on Sunday attacked the Nabha Jail in Patiala and fled with five prisoners, including Khalistan Liberation Front chief Harminder Mintoo.
Police said the jailbreak in all likelihood was plotted at their hideout in Dehradun.
The police said that they needed the custody of the dreaded terrorist to know about the role of "insiders and outsiders" who assisted him and five others in fleeing from Nabha jail in Patiala.
As tight security measures were put in place across Punjab, officials on Sunday said that checking of vehicles has been intensified at various places while paramilitary along with state police force has been deployed in Kotkapura, where Bittu's body was brought from Nabha in the morning.
Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh 'Mintoo' who along with five others escaped from the high security jail in Nabha on Sunday, was arrested by Punjab Police after he was deported from Thailand in November 2014.
The teary-eyed Congress worker said he committed a "grave error" and appealed to the party workers and leaders to accept his apology.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday allocated portfolios to the new ministers, keeping 14 departments with himself and giving home affairs to deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and health to other deputy O P Soni.
Delhi Police faced a tough time in 2016 when crime cases surged by over nine per cent in the national capital while 73 per cent cases remained unsolved.