JAGRAON: Sixteen bus passengers 15 of them belonging to a particular community were shot dead and at least six seriously injured by gunmen. The killings coincided with the police launching a statewide “Operation Final Assault” to last for a month for stamping out militancy.
The killers left the bus outside the rural women khalsa educational institution complex at Sidhwan Khurd and fled hidden by thick fog.
The additional deputy commissioner Sanjay Kumar said that 13 bodies had been identified and handed over to relatives Of the six injured two including an old woman have been admitted to the Jagraon government hospital while others were taken to hospitals in Ludhiana.
All the deceased were men. One turned out to be a Sikh Jassa Singh and another injured Mohammed Lukman a Muslim Jassa Singh sported a beard but was not wearing a turban.
The Punjab Roadways bus had left Moga for Ludhiana at 6 am. Half-an-hour behind schedule. The bus conductor Baldev Raj said he was sitting on the bonnet when he heard some shots near Soian village. First he thought gunmen had fired on the bus but soon realized they were among the passengers.
A clean-shaven man asked him not to look back and directed the driver Sukhdev Singh to continue driving on the main Moga-Ludhiana road.
Baldev Raj said there were seven gunmen. One of them was sitting just behind the driver’s seat while the others had positioned themselves at different places
The injured Mohammed Lukman who belongs to Bihar and was admitted to Jagraon hospital said the gunmen had ordered all the passengers to lower their heads and none of them looked towards them.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 11, 1992
