Protesters led by a pastor marched through a gang-controlled area near the capital. Rights groups reporting on the incident blamed the pastor for leading protesters into such a dangerous situation.
Some of the protesters marching against the gang carried machetesImage: Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo/picture alliance
A powerful gang in Haiti opened fire on a pastor-led march through an area controlled by the gang near the capital Port-au-Prince, killing several of the marching parishioners.
The gang, which controls the northern Canaan suburb, fired at the protesters with machine guns. Local rights group CARDH said at least seven people were killed, with the group’s director Gedeon Jean expecting the death toll to rise.
Jean said that several people were wounded, with some churchgoers even kidnapped.
What do we know about the march?
Videos shared on social media showed some 100 people marching in Canaan. Many of the protesters donned yellow shirts associated with Pastor Marco’s religious group, while some were seen carrying sticks and machetes.
Journalists at the scene filmed the attack on the march in real time, Marie Yolène Gilles, director of human rights group Fondasyon Je Klere, told The Associated Press.
Unverified videos on social media showed people who appear to be hostages saying they thought the march was peaceful and were unaware it addressed the gang.
After leaving India from Kolkata, Deepak is believed to have first reached Dubai, then Kazakhstan. A few days later, he is said to have travelled to Panama City & then to Costa Rica.
File photo of Deepak Pahal alias Deepak Boxer | Instagram: @gogi_delhi
“Ab samajh gaya, yeh Delhi Police hai (Now, I get it, this is Delhi Police)”— these were the first words Deepak Pahal alias Deepak Boxer, allegedly one of the Delhi-NCR’s most wanted gangsters, uttered when he saw two police officers on-board the flight to India after his detention in Mexico Monday, ThePrint has learnt.
Deepak Boxer — who was allegedly running key operations of the Gogi gang after Jitendra Mann alias Gogi was shot dead inside Delhi’s Rohini Court complex in 2021 — was lounging in a small hotel by the sea in Cancun area Monday when he was detained by the Mexico police for entering the country illegally, police sources told ThePrint Tuesday.
He, however, thought of it as a small issue that he would easily wriggle out of, till he was put on a Turkish Airlines flight to India via Istanbul in which two Delhi Police officers, who he recognised, were also onboard, sources added.
“He had no idea that he was being taken back home to the police he escaped,” an intelligence source told ThePrint.
Deepak was detained by the Mexico police as part of a joint operation of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell with the help of Office of the Legal Attaché, US Embassy, Delhi, that went on for over 20 days, police sources said.
With over 10 cases of murder, extortion, kidnapping against him, Deepak carried a reward of Rs 3 lakh against him.
According to the police and intelligence agencies, Deepak had planned to sneak into the US via Mexico and had sought help from a human trafficking cartel to facilitate his travel through ‘donkey route’ (illegal method of entering a foreign country). The illegal entry to the US through the human trafficking cartel would have cost him around Rs 40 lakh.
“He was travelling with a group arranged by the human trafficking cartel and his plan was to get to his gang members in the US and then run his operations from there. Had he managed to escape to the US, it would have been extremely difficult to get him back,” one of the sources said.
Broadband router that gave him away
As part of the operation that began after 16 March, Office of the Legal Attaché, US Embassy, Mexico police and the Special Cell of the Delhi Police worked in close coordination, tracking Deepak’s whereabouts with the help of technical surveillance and human intelligence.
More than a dozen of his associates were rounded up and questioned in India, while many calls were intercepted and their locations were mapped to finally reach him, the intelligence source quoted above said.
According to the source, it was a broadband network that Deepak connected his phone to, that led the team to the area where he was staying and, subsequently, his detention.
He had been in Mexico for the last 20 days, the source said. “Despite a 12-hour difference, our team in Delhi was continuously working with the Office of the Legal Attaché, US Embassy and Mexico police to track his whereabouts. The Mexico police zeroed down on locations and started a search after he was found to be in Cancun,” the source added.
“Their search led them to an area dotted with hotels. That was the place where these human trafficking cartels who sneak illegal immigrants into the US, operate. When the Mexico police asked about the presence of any Indians in the vicinity, they reached the hotel where Deepak was staying,” the source said.
Deepak was detained when he was unable to show proper documents of his arrival in Mexico. “He did not have an immigration stamp on his passport showing his arrival in Mexico; so, he was detained. But Deepak had no idea that it was a joint operation to get him back to India,” the source said.
To get him back to India in time, too was a task.
The source said that Indian authorities did not want to give even 24 hours to Deepak in Mexico, fearing that he may appeal for an asylum. It was decided that he would not be taken to Mexico City and instead will be put on a flight to India via Turkey from Cancun itself.
“We did not want to give him any time. So, another channel was opened with Turkish authorities and they, too, were taken on board. He was then taken to Istanbul from Cancun and will reach Delhi soon,” the source said.
‘Wanted to flee to US’
Deepak had fled India in January on a fake passport that he arranged from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly in the name of ‘Ravi Antil’ in December last year. This, according to the police, was the first tip-off. The two men involved in arranging the passport have also been arrested.
According to the source, after leaving India from Kolkata, Deepak first reached Dubai, then moved to Almaty in Kazakhstan. After spending a few days there, he moved to Panama City and then to Costa Rica.
