ROPAR: There was no money with Rajinder Kaur (30) to get the youngest of her three daughters treated who later died. In the eighth month of pregnancy, her husband Gurmukh Singh (35), a Babbar Khalsa International (BK) militant, has absconded, Living at Pipal Majra village in this district, Rajinder has to feed her blindin laws too. The family owns less than two acres of land.

Das Singh (70), father of Kamail Singh Kaili, Lt General of the BTEK, is desolate at the fate of the family. Das has five sons but only Kaili joined militants in 1990. Landlords in the village refused them work when they learned of Kaili’s joining militancy. The family has no land and had been working as farm laborers. The father, along with his one married son and daughter in law, left his native village, Chotia Samana to work with a road contractor at Jalandhar, “My son left home three years ago, Since then life has been terrible for us. | have almost lost my eyesight had suffer from acute bone pain. Kaili did not bother about the family, laments Das Singh. The family’s house was stabilize last year by miscreants,

Jaswinder Kaur (22), widow of army man turned militant Faqir Singh of Marauli village, who was killed in an encounter, has been “kicked out” of house by her in laws. She says “whatever little I had has been taken away by my in laws. I do not know where to go with my two minor sons.” Her father is currently supporting her with whatever little he earns from four bigghes of land.

Sanjiv Gupta, SSP says, “We do not want the families of militants to suffer social ostracism due w no fault of theirs. We are requesting various departments to adopt these families and help them find permanent sources of income. The government however, has no scheme to help them he said.

However, Gupta maintains that most of such families are well off and needed no government help. The village panchayats have been requested to help the police identify poor families so that the problem can be studied.

Jagir Singh (65), father of slain Babbar Khalsa militant Gurmail Singh Gokha has been given money collected by the villagers to open a small general store in his village, Bhauwal. The administration looks upon the relatives of all militants as hostile, The police force only pays lip service to improving their lot, our sources said.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 30, 1993