Thai police arrest Indian fugitive convicted over 1995 Punjab bombing

Thai police have arrested a man convicted of involvement in the 1995 bomb attack in India which killed 18 people, including the chief minister of the northern state of Punjab.

Gurmeet Singh - also known as Jagtar Singh Tara - was a member of the Babbar Khalsa International Sikh separatist group and one of six militants convicted in connection with the blast.

A bomb planted in then-chief minister Beant Singh's car exploded in Chandigarh, killing him and 17 others, including aides and members of his security detail.

Gurmeet Singh and three others escaped a high-security prison in India in 2004, but in 2007 was sentenced in absentia to life in prison.

Thai police said Singh entered Thailand in October 2014 and was arrested in the seaside town of Pattaya, east of Bangkok.

"We arrested fugitive convict Mr Gurmeet Singh in Pattaya after monitoring his movements for several months and with the help of police in India," said Royal Thai Police spokesman Police Lt-.General Prawut Thavornsiri.

Police were seeking permission from Thailand's Supreme Court to extradite Singh, he added.

"The plan is to send him back to India."

Beant Singh became chief minister of Punjab, home to most Indian Sikhs, in 1992.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-06/thai-police-arrest-indian-fugitive/6003332