CHANDIGARH: The Human Rights wing of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has demanded strict action against persons charged with lynching Dr. Swaran Singh and Mohinder Singh in village Jamalpur near Tohana on December 25.
The demand was raised by the organization ‘schairman Jaspal Singh Dhillon at a press conference. He urged the government to grant adequate compensation to Ms. Balwinder Kaur, widow of Swaran Singh, her children and the family of Mohinder Singh
The chairman said a fact finding team of the organization that visited village Jamalpur on January 4, to attend the bhog ceremony of Swaran Singh made an on the spot assessment of the incident. Across section of villagers were also interviewed in this connection, he added.
Gurbax Singh (13), son of Swaran Singh, who was present at the press conference last week, survived the attack by hiding in a bush throughout the night.
Dhillon said that although the incident occurred due to a land dispute but the attack was made on the pretext of harboring a militant He urged the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal to look into the matter and order strict measures to ensure that land disputes do not take the shape of such heinous crimes.
Besides human rights activists Balwinder Kaur and Swaran Singh’s father were also present at the news conference.
Dhillon said although the prime accused, Haram Singh was a Sikh but he managed to mobilize the mob by branding Mohinder Singh as a “militant” and whipped up communal passions..
Thereafter it was a free for all situations with the mob even using a public address system to announce that a militant had entered the village.
He claimed that tension amongst the communities prevailed in the area after the incident. A cross section of people attending the Bhog ceremony said that the assailants knew Mohinder Singh, who visited the village regularly for his eye treatment.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 27, 1995
