Nov 27 (Agencies):  Five armed men in police uniform on Sunday broke into Nabha prison in Punjab's Patiala district and helped several inmates escape, including dreaded Khalistan ultra and Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Mintoo.

The other fugitives include gangsters Neeta Deol, Vicky Gonder, Amandeep Doda, and another terrorist, Kashmir Galwaddi.

State police have flagged a high alert across the state and on borders of Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir.

The armed men came at around 10 am, disguised as cops.

"They even used handcuffs placed on other two men to disguise them as real cops," said a senior Punjab Police official.

An eyewitness had a higher estimate of the number of men who attacked the jail.

The vehicles used for helping the terrorists and gangsters flee were a Toyota Fortuner, a Maruti Swift and a Hyundai Verna.

Mintoo, who was arrested in 2014 by Punjab Police in November 2014, was wanted in 10 terror-related cases, including the 2008 attack on Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and 2010 recovery of explosives at Halwara Air Force station.

Punjab police records have also revealed that Mintoo visited Europe in 2010 to develop contacts and left Pakistan in June 2013 for an extensive tour of Europe lasting 11 months. He visited Italy, Belgium, Germany, France and other European countries before reaching South East Asia.

Mintoo's KLF was extensively using the internet for collecting funds, attracting recruits and spreading falsehoods and hatred.

As for Vicky Gonder, he and his 15-member gang were jailed after they shot dead another gangster, Sukha Kahlon, in Phagwara in in full public view in January 2015. Kahlon was on his way then to a local court.