NIA Arrests Key Khalistani Operative Involved In Nabha Jail Break Escape After 8 Years
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested a key Khalistani operative and leader of the banned Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF) Kashmir Singh Galwaddi after eight-year-long manhunt. He is a prime accused in the 2016 Nabha jailbreak case, who had since been on the run.
According to the NIA, Galwaddi had been actively associated with foreign-based Babbar Khalsa terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda since breaking out of Nabha jail.
The breakthrough came when Galwaddi of Punjab's Ludhiana was nabbed from Motihari in Bihar in a joint effort of the police and the NIA in connection with a Khalistani terror conspiracy case, news agency ANI reported.
The NIA has identified Galwaddi as a key operative of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Rinda’s terror network in Nepal. He has been declared a proclaimed offender in an NIA case and is accused of conspiring, providing shelter, logistical support, and terror funding to aides of Khalistani terrorists. "These aides had escaped to Nepal. after carrying out various terror activities in India, including the RPG attack at the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters," NIA said in a statement.
In August 2022, NIA had registered the terror conspiracy case suo moto to probe the terrorist activities of leaders and members of banned groups like Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), among others.
"Investigations had exposed a terror-criminal nexus, suggesting that these terror groups, along with organised criminal gangs were engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware, such as arms, ammunition explosive, IEDs etc from across the border to carry out terror activities in various parts of the country," a statement by the NIA noted.
After being declared a proclaimed offender by NIA special court in the 2022 terror conspiracy case, non-bailable warrants were issued for his arrest. The anti-terror agency even announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone who could provide information leading to his capture.
In July 2023, the NIA filed a chargesheet against nine people in the terror case, including key accused like Sandhu and Landa. This was followed by two more chargesheets naming six additional individuals. In a major breakthrough in August 2024, the agency managed to get Landa’s brother, Tarsem Singh, extradited from the UAE. A third supplementary chargesheet against him was filed that December.
What Is The Nabha Jailbreak Case?
On the morning of November 27, 2016, around 9 AM, chaos erupted at the high-security Nabha jail in Punjab when 24 armed men stormed the prison, overpowered the security personnel, snatched their weapons, and managed to free six high-profile inmates.
Among them were four notorious gangsters and two militants associated with the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), including Kashmir Singh.
The escapees included Harminder Singh Mintoo, the chief of KLF who was later recaptured but died in Patiala jail in 2018; gangster Vicky Gounder, who was killed in a police encounter that same year; and others like Amandeep Dhotian, Gurpreet Sekhon, and Kulpreet "Neeta" Deol, who were eventually recaptured along with Kashmir Singh.
Later in March 2023, a Patiala court convicted 22 individuals for their involvment in the case. Among them were two jail officials—Assistant Superintendent Bhim Singh and Head Warder Jagmeet Singh—who were sentenced to 10 years in prison for their negligence. Two others, Sukhchain Singh and Bikkar Singh, received 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.
The alleged mastermind behind the escape, Ramanjit Singh Romy, was extradited from Hong Kong in August 2024. He was initially lodged back in Nabha Jail, but was later shifted to Amritsar Jail due to security concerns.
(With inputs from news agency ANI.)
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