BASURI DESAI
basuri@herald-goa.com
PONDA/betim: For a Punjabi family that has lived in Ponda taluka for 25 years, the weekend was tense, spent in front of the television screen not watching any entertainment channels, but sifting through news channels to learn more of Harminder Singh Mintoo, the Khalistan Liberation Front Chief, who had escaped from a Punjab jail on Sunday.
On Monday Mintoo was arrested on Monday in Delhi and the tension abated for the terrorist was a son to a mother in that house, and brother to two. Mintoo lived in Goa for 14 years before he moved out of the State, on getting involved with the Khalistani movement. During the time in Goa, he led a respectable life, even becoming Pradhan of the Sri Gurudwara at Betim from 2003 to 2005.
Mintoo’s family came from Punjab to Mumbai and from there to Goa in 1991. Mintoo joined them a year later and the family has been residing in Ponda for the last 25 years. Today in the house in Ponda lives his mother and two of the Khalistani terrorist’s brothers with their wives and three children. From the time the family came to Goa till now they have been in the construction business.
The family, who does not want to reveal their identity in public, said they came to Goa only because of business and Mintoo was a part of the family business till the mid-2000s. The family members said they came to Goa in 1991 and Mintoo joined them in 1992 and was involved in the construction business, leading a respectable life, even becoming the Pradhan of the Gurudwara.
According to family members, after 2005 Mintoo started visiting Mumbai very frequently, which led to their father suspecting that he was involved with unwanted elements and in anti-social activities. The father then asked Mintoo to get out of the house and told him that it would be in the best interests of the rest of the family.
“Mintoo is a stranger to us as much he is for any law abiding citizen. We have broken ties with Mintoo since 2006 and we know about him as much as people know from the news,” Mintoo’s 49-year-old younger brother told Herald, when it tracked the family down in Ponda.
The brother said that after that family have never heard of him directly and even when their father died, Mintoo was not informed. Family members said that though they have been living in Goa for the last 25 years, the police never enquired with them about Mintoo, nor was anyone in the neighbourhood aware of the family’s ties with Mintoo.
The current President of the Gurudwara, Harvindar Singh Dhal, said that during those years the family was strongly associated with the institution but after 2014, when Mintoo was arrested and the people learnt about it, the family stopped visiting. He said that the family told him that Mintoo had settled in Canada and cases against him are over as he was falsely implicated.
Mintoo and five others escaped from Nabha jail in Punjab on Sunday after armed men in police uniform tricked the sentries into opening the gates and bolted out with the inmates firing bullets.
However, Mintoo was arrested on Monday in Delhi and according to media reports he had planned to come to Goa after the escape.
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Cops probe Mintoo’s sympathisers
Goa Police has started an inquiry to ascertain why Harinder Singh Mintoo, the Khalistan Liberation Front Chief who had escaped from a Punjab jail on Sunday, was planning to come to Goa and then seeking to head to Germany from here.
Deputy Inspector General of Goa Police, Vimal Anand Gupta said an inquiry has already been initiated to check who were Mintoo’s sympathisers in Goa and why he would be comfortable coming here. “We are inquiring secretly and looking for all details of his sympathizers in Goa and his links in Goa,” DIG Gupta said.
He said there has been no communication to Goa Police from any security agency on the Mintoo arrest till date.
