WSN Service

CHANDIGARH: Mystery surrounding the execution of four members of the family of militant leader Balwinder Singh Jattana in in Jattana village in August remains unresolved.

Several Sikh organizations had pointed an accusing finger at the Chandigarh S.S.P. Sumedh Saini, for his hand in the cold-blooded murders. The Jattana incident took place within 24 hours of a bomb blast in Chandigarh in which Saini escaped with minor injuries.

The Times of India’s Chandigarh Correspondent, Dinesh Kumar, quoted “highly placed sources” in the Punjab government to suggest that Ropar police chief, Mohammed Mustafa, had sent a confidential letter to Punjab Director-General, Police, D.S. Mangat, early September alleging that Saini had dispatched three jeep-loads of plain clothes men of the Chandigarh police to Balwinder Singh’s village, Jattana, on the night of Aug.29. They killed Balwinder Sings grandmother, maternal aunt, her teenaged daughter and his polio infected infant cousin.

Sources said that Saini’s suspicion was that Balwinder Singh was behind the attack on him at

Chandigarh and the former ordered the killings at Jattana. The Ropar police reportedly intercepted the three jeeps thrice while it was on way to Jaitana and back. Moustafa was even quoted as warning that militants might start killing the innocent relations of policemen for whom Saini should be held responsible.

 Mustafa also reportedly recorded another incident in which the Chandigarh police killed a Sikh youth of Mohali, Parminder Singh, and threw his body into neighboring Ropar district. Saini then telephoned Mustafa asking him to “own” Parminder’s killing. But Mustafa refused to oblige the Chandigarh police chief.

Mustafas letter came as bombshells in political circles here, there were hectic consultations on what should be done because it clearly exposed the police officers hand in numerous crimes.

Inevitably, a criminal case against saini and his subordinates could not be postponed. But then the powers that be acted fast to send out information to the Punjab D.G.P, to “set the record straight” so that police was not demoralized. Consequently, the Punjab police issued a contradiction to the Press deny the existence of the Mustafa letter as “unsubstantiated end based on rumors”. But there are not many takers for this cover-up here.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 25, 1991