CHANDIGARH, India -- Sikh militants stopped a police van in northern Punjab state and forced officers to release an extremist accused of instigating a massacre last year, police said Monday.
The ambush occurred Sunday afternoon outside Moga, 85 miles west of Chandigarh, as police were transferring Harjinder Singh Jinda to Sangrur high-security prison, 70 miles southwest of the state capital, police said.
Police arrested Jinda in December on charges of planning and participating in a bus hijacking last July in which 15 passengers were killed. Authorities ay he is a senior member of the 'Khalistan Commando Force,' one of several extremist groups fighting to establish an independent Sikh nation of 'Khalistan.'
In Sunday's ambush, police said, Sikh militants drove drove a car across the path of the police van, forcing it to stop, while two other vehicles blocked the van's escape from the rear. A police escort car had earlier left the road because of mechanical problems, they said.
Police said the 15 extremists, armed with submachine guns and pistols, then surrounded the van and demanded Jinda be released or they would open fire.
The six officers inside the van set the prisoner free and the extremists shot out two tires on the van before fleeing, police said.
Police said they issued a security alert and mounted a search for the militants.
More then 1,000 people, mostly Hindus, have died in extremist violence in Punjab since January 1986 in what officials say is a campaign by the militants to terrify Hindus into fleeing the predominantly Sikh state.
