Khalistani terrorist Kashmir Singh, who broke out of the Nabha jail (Punjab's Patiala district) in 2016, is believed to be hiding in Nepal under a different identity and altered appearance. Singh is one of the four accused in the 2015 attack on Harvinder Soni, the general secretary of the Punjab unit of Shiv Sena. Singh and five others escaped from the high-security Nabha jail on November 27, 2016, after a group of gangsters dressed as policemen opened fire at security guards. He is the only escapee who is yet to be caught. Who is Kashmir Singh? Kashmir Singh alias Balbir Singh is a resident of Galwadi village in Ludhiana district. On April 15, 2015, he and four others allegedly attacked Soni while he was playing volleyball in a park. Singh allegedly used a country-made pistol to shoot Soni in the stomach. Soni managed to escape from the spot on his motorcycle. Singh has also been involved in cases pertaining to robbery, theft etc. Before the attack on Soni, he went to Nabha jail in one of these cases but was released on bail. During his time in prison, Singh met Khalistan Liberation Force chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, who was arrested in 2014 for being involved in numerous criminal cases. Mintoo was allegedly involved in the attack on Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2008. “Probe has revealed that Singh was influenced by Mintoo and after coming out on bail, he attacked Soni,” an officer told The Indian Express. Singh also faces a National Investigation Agency (NIA) case, registered in 2022, over a conspiracy by the Khalistan Liberation Front, Babbar Khalsa International, and the International Sikh Youth Federation to wage war against India. How did Kashmir Singh escape from Nabha jail in 2016? On November 27, 2016, 15 armed men, dressed as policemen, opened fire at security guards at Nabha jail, and helped free four gangsters and two terrorists. The four gangsters were Vicky Gounder, Gurpreet Sekhon, Kulpreet Singh alias Neeta Deol, and Amandeep Singh Dhotian. The two terrorists were Harminder Singh Mintoo and Kashmir Singh. While Sekhon, Neeta Deol, Dhotian, and Mintoo were rearrested, Gounder was killed in an encounter. Kashmir Singh is still at large. In 2023, a court in Patiala sentenced 18 people, including three gangsters and two prison staffers, in the jailbreak case, to 10 years of imprisonment. Two others were sentenced to 20 years in prison due to additional charges of drug peddling. The court also sentenced one person to five years in jail, and another to three years. Of the total 28 accused in the case, the court held 22 guilty, and acquitted six others. How does Kashmir Singh operate from Nepal? According to central agencies, Singh, who is based in Nepal, provided shelter and funds to two persons — Deepak Ranga and a juvenile — who carried out the 2022 RPG attack on the Punjab police intelligence headquarters in Mohali. In January 2023, the police arrested one of the two persons involved in the attack. The person recently revealed to interrogators that Singh had provided logistics support to them for carrying out the attack. After he escaped from the Nabha jail, Singh made alliances with Pakistan-based terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda and Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu, also known as Landa. Ranga was also allegedly involved in the murder of builder Sanjay Biyani in Maharashtra’s Nanded on Rinda’s orders. “After committing the RPG attack and murder, Deepak along with his juvenile associate fled to Nepal where they were hiding. Rinda started giving them between Rs 75,000 and Rs one lakh every month. But, in Nepal, Ranga had a heated argument with the juvenile, who came back to India. Subsequently, Ranga, without informing Singh, also returned to India. Both of them were later arrested,” an officer said.
