Punjab police announced they had arrested an armed Kashmiri militant near Chandigarh who, they claimed, was planning to trade Kapil Dev for an imprisoned rebel chief.
State police chief Sube Singh, quoted by the Times of India daily, said Bilal Ahmad was part of a Kashmir Moslem militant group called the Al-umar Mujahideen and had been armed with a 30 millimetre pistol and cartridges.
Police officials said Bilal, who wanted to force the authorities to release imprisoned rebel chief Mushtaq Latram from a Delhi prison, had admitted he had been trained to handle weapons and explosives in Pakistan.
The group had previously kidnapped a politician from the eastern state of Bihar and held him for 11 months before troops freed him.
Moslem militants in Kashmir have been waging an armed struggle to secede from India since 1989. More than 15,000 people have died during the campaign. (AFP)