CHANDIGARH:A brazen instance of Some police officials announcing the killing of a top militant to claim the reward money has come to the light with the Surfacing of the “dead” militant in the Punjab and Haryana High Court here last week.
The self-styled ‘lieutenant general’ of Babbar Khalsa International outfit Harpreet Singh alias “Happy” who was carried are ward of Rs 10 lakh on his head was declared dead in an encounter in 1991 the Amritsar. Reports of the encounter even appeared in the press quoting the then Superintendent of Police (Operations) Amritsar S. K. Singh.
The militants who also operated under an assumed name of Gurpreet Singh be Tongs to Burj Raike village of Amritsar district. HE spoke to this correspondent here last week nearly four years after the ‘announcement of his ‘killing’ and possible collection of the reward money by the police officials.
His father Hazura Singh 70 met his advocates Ranjan Lakhanpal and Atul Lakhanpal in the High Court to seek judicial remedy. His father said he feared his son liquidation by police.
Supporting his story with newspaper ‘cuttings Happy said that he was arrested from Amritsar on November 18 1991 by the Superintendent of Police (Operations) and kept in illegal custody. He was shown as having been killed following a fierce encounter” along with an misidentified militant while “two others had escaped.” Tries not known if the post mortem was conducted as required before their bodies were cremated.
According to the police briefing done for the press at that time Happy was responsible for 150 murders fatal ambushing of SP Taran Taran Harjit Singh a bomb blast at the Delhi railway station and a rocket attack on Kairon police post besides looting of Rs38 lakh from Syndicate Bank. The police showed that a machine gun a land mine a remote control and some other ammunition was recovered from the site of the encounter.
Though denying the police claims Harpreet Singh admitted his involvement in militant activity and said that he was in thick of it since 1985 He met BKI Chief ‘Wadhawa Singh in 1985 in the Golden ‘Temple who introduced him to Sukhdev Singh Chaba in charge of the Doaba Zone of the outfit Initially he was recruited in the frontal organization of the BKI meant for carrying out the propaganda and passing of secret messages to the armed activists After three years of “service” he was provided with arms and ammunition. In 1988 due to the differences with the Babbars he was expelled from the outfit. He then joined the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar) which operated under a militant called Ram Singh Manewala.
He remained with the group for two years and again joined the BKI where he was cleated to the pompous rank of ‘lieutenant general’ to carry out the militant activities.
According to Happy in September 1992 he managed to escape from the police custody. He said that he escaped from the custody of the CRPF where he was kept ‘handcuffed and tied to a “charpoy.””
Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1995
