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A general heightened alert was sounded across Punjab following a detailed advisory issued by ministry of home stating that Pakistan based terrorists organisations have planned to carry-out multiple jailbreaks in Punjab.

The MHA advisory, according to reliable sources was issued last week expressively stating that Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda, now operating from Pakistan has “conceived a jailbreak plan in Punjab” to “ensure release of some prominent gangsters and militants”.

The likely targets of jail breaks could be the Bathinda jail, Ferozepur jail, Amritsar jail or Ludhiana jail, according to MHA sources.

According to The Indian Express, the development comes few days after Punjab witnessed back-to-back incidents of violence and security breach, allegedly planned and executed by the gangsters operating from abroad with the help of local criminals, including murder of kabaddi player Sandeep Sing on March the 14th 2022 followed by a RPG attack on police intelligence HQs in Mohali on May 9.

The gruesome killing of singer-rapper Sidhu Moose Wala had taken place on May the 29th, 2022 allegedly masterminded by criminals lodged in jails.

The letter written by the joint director, SIB (MHA) to Punjab Police DGP says that “according to a reliable input, Pakistan-based operative Harvinder Singh alias Rinda has conceived a jail break plan in Punjab in coming days to ensure release of some prominent gangsters and militants”.

“Besides utilising his Punjab-based cohorts, Rinda is also likely to rope in some jehadi elements in execution of the plan. The likely targets of execution could be Bathinda jail, Ferozepur jail, Amritsar jail or Ludhiana jail,” reads the letter.

Rinda, a wanted terrorist-gangster considered close to BKI chief Wadhawa Singh and is being allegedly ‘protected’ by the ISI in Pakistan.

He is a close associate of Lakhvir Singh Landa, a gangster hiding in Canada and the key conspirator of RPG attack on Punjab Police’s intelligence HQs, said Punjab Police.

It is suspected that Rinda reached Pakistan via Nepal after apparently acquiring a fake passport.

The Indian Express report added that Rinda, 35, is also suspected of carrying out a terror attack at the Nawanshahr Crime Investigating Agency building on November 8 last year. In May this year, in a joint operation of Punjab and Haryana police also arrested four terror suspects from Karnal who were allegedly travelling to Telangana to deliver a consignment of weapons, ammunition and IEDs that was dropped via drones in a field of Ferozepur, on the directions of Rinda.

On Sunday, Punjab Jails Minister Harjot Singh Bains reached Ludhiana central jail on a surprise inspection was extensively quoted by the The Indian Express that his department was taking all measures to make prisons of Punjab free from mobile phones. “In 2.5 months of the AAP coming to power, we have recovered at least 1,000 mobile phones from jails. It is a record… Adequate security has been deployed across all jails in Punjab,” he said.