TARSIKA (AMRITSAR): Militants, continuing their reprisal killings, shot dead seven relatives of two Punjab police personnel at Tarsika village, shot dead eight persons and seriously injured one person in two separate shooting incidents in Amritsar district, The killed included 21 relatives of a police man on August 13, 14 and 15,

With this, the number of the relatives of police personnel killed in Punjab by militants following the killing of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) chief, Bhai Sukhdev Singh Babbar, has risen to 55. Elsewhere in Punjab, an Assistant Inspector of Police and two of his family friends were also shot dead.

Two militants, armed with AK47 rifles, went to the house of Subedar Narinjn Singh (Retd, father of constable Salwinder Singh, who is a guard of the Majitha Deputy Superintendent of Police (Detective), Balbir Singh, and forced him to accompany them to the house of constable Gurdip Singh. When Gurdip Singh’s father, Dani Singh (55), opened the door, they shot dead all the four persons in the house who were sleeping. The victim were Gurdip Singh’s three brothers-Rajbir Singh (15), Kulwant Singh (13), and Balwinder Singh (12), and his mother, Surinder Kaur (50), Later, they gunned down Dan Singh and Subed Narinjan Sigh, Constable Gurdip Singh was not at home.

The militants, one clean shaven and one turbaned, walked away after the killings. It was in the morning that the matter was reported to the police.

However, Constable Salwinder Singh and his two sons were not harmed.

Surprisingly, there is a CRPF picket, only about 500 yards away from the spot of the killings and army men were present nearby when the massacre took place.

The police claimed that the Khalistan Commando Force (Zaffarwal) was behind the killing, ‘The incident at Jethu Narigal was the third in the series of the killings of the kin of policemen in Amritsar district,

Militants armed with AK-47 assault rifles, entered this village and segregated male relatives from the policemen’s houses. The militants did not touch the female members.

The males were forced to walk at gun point for quite a long distance and later shot dead one after another. The villagers, on hearing the gun shots, took shelter in the paddy fields.

The militants first entered the house of Surinder Singh, son of Darshan Singh, Surinder Singh’s wife Dalbir Kaur, 55, narrating her harrowing experience, said that she had asked her husband to migrate from this village but her husband did not, She said that her husband had faith that the militants would not touch his family because his son, a police constable, had never harmed anybody.

Sarbjit Kaur, who lost her husband and father-in-law, is an “Amritdhari” woman (baptized Sardarni). She said she touched feet of militants as not to kill her husband and relatives because they were “Amritdharies” but they did not listen.

Meanwhile militants gunned down constable Buta Singh when he was going to his in-laws house near Chagal village in Sangrur.

Militants had abducted Majitha SSP” s brother-in-law Pritam Singh in Bathinda district. The where abouts of the kidnapped persons were still unknown,

Among the senior Punjab police official who visited the spot  included DGP, K.P.S.Gill, D.R. Bhatti IG (border range) P.S .Gill, SSP, Majitha, ‘ police and senior officials of CRPF.

Meanwhile, four militants of the Bhindranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan (BTFK) surrendered to the Khanna police.

They have been identified as Taranjit Singh and Baljit Singh of Saludi village, Baljit Singh of Mohanpur and Hardip Singh of Rahaun Majra. They had been guided to join militant ranks by Sukhminder Singh area commander of Bhindranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan (Sangha group). The Jagraon police arrested two militants, Kulwinder Singh alias Kindi and Manjit Singh of Khalistan Liberation Force. Upon interrogation police recovered five quintals of explosive material from a brick kilo at Sujapur village.

According to the police, these militants had looted this explosive from a truck on Nagpur-Bandra road after killing the driver and conductor of the vehicle, The Jagraon police has so far recovered 13 quintals of explosives and 600 detonators from this KLF group.  

After a day’s respite, militants again launched their offensive against security men and their relations, killing ASI Manjit Singh _ and his two family friends, identified as Kabul Singh and his wife, at Zihura village in Hoshiarpur district.

The ASI, who was posted at Hoshiarpur in the CID unit, had gone to Zahura village to meet the  couple when the militants executed them.  

A group of militants ambushed a police party escorting a militant Baldev Singh for recovery of arms near Sher pur village in Ferozepur district.

Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 28, 1992