Major Avtar Singh, a former soldier wanted in eleven murder cases in Kashmir including that of lawyer and rights actvisit Jalil Andrabi has been evading arrest sine 1996.
A couple of years back he was reportedly living in Canada. Last week, however, he was arrested by police is California, – allegedly for beating his wife, and was free within a few hours from jail.
Singh is living in Selma town that falls in the Fresno county of California. He is in transport business.
His brief arrest led a local channel’s correspondent Corin Hoggard to catch Singh on camera for the first time. Singh admitted he is the same soldier who is accused of the lawyer’s killing. California police said Singh is under surveillance.
Meanwhile J&K police have revived their efforts to get him extradited. Interpol has already been informed but a formal request is yet to go from New Delhi. A JKP team is sitting in Delhi to press for the extradition.
Here follows the first response of the fugitive soldier on TV. Army has already termed him a deserter but the mystery remains – who helped him to escape from Haryana. Singh’s wife comes from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, but her family lives in Srinagar now.
Click the link to watch Avtar Singh saying he is wanted by al-Qaeda!
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=7972023
