AMRITSAR: It now transpires that Indian security forces had picked up seven innocent villagers of Behla village in this district to kill two militant Indians belonging to Baba Manochahal-led Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan Bhai Surjit Singh Behla and Bhai Madan Singh Maddi.
The two militants had been trapped in a house. The village had been surrounded by 1600 Indian security forces personnel but no one evidently was willing to move ahead. There was tension in the area as Tarn Taran district police chief Ajit Singh Sandhu along with two deputy commandants of the C.R.P.F had succeeded in ascending to the roof of the house but was too scared to confront the militants.
This situation continued for about 28 hours until the Indian security forces presumably headed by Punjab director-general K.P.S. Gill struck upon the idea of picking up a few innocent villagers to be used as human shields that it was presumed would not be fired upon by the militants. The police strategy was to kill or arrest the militants in this manner.
The police picked up seven villagers some from a local Gurdwara and others from a tube well and put them ahead of a row of police gunmen. According to eyewitnesses Chanan Singh Dr. Joginder Singh and Jasbir Kaur the police picked up Miranjan Singh a small milk vendor who was killed in the process of being used as a police shield. Another village farmer killed was Ajit Singh who ran a horse cart to make ends meet. Yet another farmer killed was Lakhwinder Singh. The fourth person’s identity was not known. Sucha Singh son of Niranjab Singh was injured and he was admitted to a private hospital at Tarn Taran in a serious condition
A few farmers such as Gurdip Singh (65) his grand-son Bhupinder Singh (17) and the father-in-law of the village granthi escaped death miraculously escaped death miraculously.
Jasbir Kaur stated that the brother of her husband Lakhwinder Singh was picked up by the police from their field where he was working. Another woman Chhinda said her brother Ajit Singh ran a horse-cart to earn a living for the family which included his seven children. “Who will look after the family now?”. She asked in horror.
The police version of the encounter which the Indian media and news agencies circulated was that nine militants had been killed whereas in reality only two Sikhs killed were militants belonging to the B.T.F.K. and the seven others were ordinary farmers unconnected with the movement.
When this reality came to light several newspapers and public men strongly condemned the police for its immoral tactics. The panthic committee associated with Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal gave a call for Punjab bandh. The Akali Dal (M) too criticized the incident and demanded an enquiry by a judge of court. A few Akali groups will hold a convention at Behla village on June 25.
K.P.S. Gill in a statement later denied those killed had been used by the police as shields and claimed: “As far as we are concerned all of them were militants.”
Interestingly a few senior Hindu Officers had reportedly pleaded with Gill to announce grants to the innocents killed in the encounter to calm down the public which was greatly agitated over the incident. But to no avail.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1992
