Thailand police on lookout for Beant Singh’s killer

Thailand’s popular island resort of Phuket was on high alert on Monday after it was announced that then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassin Jagtar Singh Tara, who is on the run since 2004, might be trying to enter the country, a media report said.

“I received an alert on Sunday night from officials who are hunting for Indian national Jagtar Singh Tara and forwarded it to officers at my base,” deputy secretary general Jatuporn Klampasut of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) Region 4 told the Phuket Gazette.

“I never meant to create panic. We are only keeping an eye out for him, as he was last seen near the border of Thailand and Malaysia,” he said.

It is believed that he may attempt to enter the country via Sungai Kolok, Narathiwat, and then make his way to Pakistan.

Tara was charged and sentenced for his involvement in the 1995 assassination of Beant Singh. He, along with Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, had escaped from Burail prison in Chandigarh in 2004. Hawara and Bheora were later re-arrested.

A Thai court has already issued a warrant for Tara’s arrest in case he enters the kingdom.