CHANDIGARH: Rightwing activists claiming to be from the All India Hindu Seva Suraksha Samiti attacked Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorists Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora inside the district court complex here on Friday. The police immediately arrested four activists.

The attack took place just as Hawara and Bheora, both convicted in the Aug 31, 1995 assassination case of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, entered the court complex in Sector 17 here amid tight security.

The activists first shouted slogans against the terrorists and then one of them tried to hit Hawara. The Hindu activists said their action was because Hawara and other terrorists used to shout anti-India slogans during their court visits.

However, Hawara hit back at his attacker even as Chandigarh police personnel and officers accompanying the terrorists tried to nab the attackers.

Sector 17 station house officer Ranjodh Singh told reporters that Hawara was not injured in the incident

“At least 6-7 people associated with the All India Hindu Seva Suraksha Samiti slapped Hawara and he also retaliated. The police personnel immediately intervened and we have arrested four persons. This includes samiti’s convenor Nishant Sharma,” assistant superintendent of police Deshraj Singh said here.

“We had demanded the trial of the BKI terrorists through video conferencing as they used to raise anti-India slogans during court visits,” the Hindu group’s national general secretary, Ashutosh Gautam, said.

Hawara and Bheora were brought to the court complex for a hearing in the sensational jailbreak case in January 2004. Both terrorists, along with another terrorist, Jagtar Singh Tara, and a murder convict, Devi Singh, had escaped from the high security Burail jail here by digging a 108-feet long tunnel from their barrack.

Hawara was a mastermind of the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh at the high-security Punjab secretariat complex here.

The former chief minister (1992-95), who was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab by dealing with terrorists with an iron hand along with supercop K.P.S. Gill, was assassinated by a human bomb, Dilawar Singh, at the Punjab civil secretariat. (IANS)