NEW DELHI: A Punjab militant and his female accomplice, hold up in an LIG fat near Sayed village in Paschim Vihar, were killed in a three-hour shootout with the city police Aug. 11. Another militant escaped after a long chase.

Fauji, believed to be an army deserter who had served in Sri Lanka, resisted the police for nearly three hours, firing from an AK-56, Chinese assault rifle, and lobbing two hand-grenades at police commandos who had taken strategic positions.

At the end of it, his accomplice (possibly his wife), tentatively identified as Harjinder Kaur, and he, lay dead, Fauji had been hit by 17 bullets and Harjinder Kaur by 19. Two constables, Yashbir Singh and Jaswant Singh, were injured in the initial burst of firing. The police officials in the operation are being rewarded.

Fauji, whose real name is yet to be known, belonged to the   Babbar Khalsa” and police suspect he was  the brain behind some recent blasts in Delhi, Vijay Pal Singh, a militant caught recently, told the police that Fauji, also called Bhai Saab, was one of the leaders of their outfit. Said to be an army commando who took part in the action in Sri Lanka, they were to target those involved in the November 1984 killings, particularly public figures. Vijay Pal, and probably Fauji  were responsible for blasts at the Sunday market behind Red Fortin December, and one in a bus in January; they allegedly planted a bomb in Karol Bagh last December (it was discovered in time).

Fauji, the police say, was staying in the LIG flat (396 GH-8) since July 20 on rent. He was staying there with the female militant and another man, known to residents as Amarjit. He had been living there for over a year and was even captain of the local cricket team.

The bodies of Fauji and the woman lay sprawled, one on top of the other, on the floor of the third-floor flat. The small front room was saturated with teargas pumped through a hole made in the roof. AK-56 rifle magazines and teargas shells lay scattered in the haze; The stairs leading to the flat were spattered with blood. Curious residents peered from every vantage point, avidly watching their small colony flooded with police.

Till evening, the police were yet to determine the total rounds fired. They had seized the AK-56, along with 351 live rounds, 36 empties and four magazines. The magazines have (Babbar Khalsa International) inscribed in Gurmukhi on them, A search of the house was still on and suspected hideouts in the city were being raided to trace other members of the outfit.

The battle began early that morning, Armed with information of militants hiding in flat 396, on the third floor, a dozen men surrounded the block of flats. Vijay Pal had told them one of the men generally came down every morning to fetch milk from a Delhi Milk Scheme van which parks in the area,

About 6:30 a.m., Amarjit came down the stairs. Some of the policemen, from the Special Branch, followed him, He went around the wall of a flat and turned back suddenly to fire before taking to his heels. They returned the fire, chasing him through lanes and blocks. An inspector borrowed a two-wheeler to chase him but finally lost him a kilometer later, near Bhera Enclave. Amarjit or Ladi is described by residents as the younger brother of Fauji.

Ten Special Branch men then climbed to the third-floor flat. They knocked on the door and tried to break it open. A burst of fire greeted them. Constables Yashbir Singh and Jaswant Singh took the brunt of the firing and were saved only because of their bullet-proof jackets, The former was hit on the shoulder, armpit and waist. The later injured on the right toe and right thumb. They were brought down, tailing blood,

The remaining eight men took positions on a parallel roof and in a rear fat, firing occasionally to hold the militants till reinforcements came. A bottle grenade was hurled at them through a window, Gradually, the reinforcements poured in, from the district and commandos from its second battalion, The National Security Guards were called in but did not reach in time for the action. Announcements were made and the area evacuated. The fire service was called in to evacuate some teenagers from the adjacent flats.

Intermittent firing continued from both sides. From 9:45 a.m. the battle raged fiercely. It went on for 45 minutes with the police firing from all sides; Fauji hurled a grenade onto the roof. It just missed a group of about 20 policemen by three yards.

Finally  the police broke a small hole in the roof, pumping in teargas, and firing simultaneously from all sides, through doors and ventilators.

Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 21, 1992