BARA (HISAR): There is no conclusive evidence to establish that the five men killed in an encounter around this dusty village Dec.8 were responsible for the Tohana killings as claimed by the police.
A visit to the villages where the encounter took place Sunday reveal that there are too many loose threads in the story woven by the police.
This correspondent met the D.S.P. Mange Ram, who led the police party involved in the encounter at Rattangarh village Monday evening, Asked how the police had established that the killed militants were responsible for the Tohana massacre, he said, “The Sarabjit Singh Patla group has been active in the Rattia, Tohana and Munak belt. These militants were members of this group.”
Asked to elaborate, Mange Ram said the group comprised only 20 to 25 boys. The Tohana killers were from amongst these boys only. He did not give any other ground on which the police had based its claim.
The police, however, has eyewitness to establish that three of the five killed militants were responsible for the murder of Surjit Kaur in a Dalit colony in Saturday night. The younger son of the deceased had recognized one of the killed as the one who had fired on his mother.
But this woman’s killing was not the result of her refusing to give food to these militants. She was killed because of personal enmity.
Her daughter-in-law Vidya was married to her son Maghar Singh who died some time ago. Vidya and the deceased had strained relations, Vidya developed intimacy with one Bir Khalsa who was among the five men who died in the encounter.
The circumstantial evidence thus points only to the involvement of these militants in the murder of Surjit Kaur and their links with the Patialia group. But their involvement in Tohana killings is yet to be established beyond doubt,
The type of arms seized by the Haryana and Punjab police from the killed militants do not match with the kind of weapons used by the Tohana killers. The Haryana police seized one 315 gun and three 12-bore guns from them. The Punjab police seized a 12bore pistol and a gun of the same caliber from the two militants who were killed on their territory. The empty shells seized from Tohana indicated that the killers had used AK 47 assault rifles.
The police has not so far seized any AK-47 rifles from the killed militants. The chocolate covered Maruti car used by the Tohana killers has not yet been seized. If the killers had used it as a get-away vehicle to reach this village where did they hide the car? The police have not yet explained these loopholes.
It has been noticed that after a big action, militants involved init go underground for a few weeks to avoid arrest. Why the killed militants who’s to murder a woman in Rattia within two days call the Tohana massacre and then police undertake combining operations almost daily, DGP Kalvan Rucra had claimed at Chandigarh Sunday that the police had been on the trail of Tohana killers for three days and they were tracked to Kamaia village, 2 km from here, where two of the five militants were shot. However DSP Mange Ram and A S Badan Singh, in charge of the police post at Mehamira village near here, said the combing, operation was routine affair which began around 6 a.m., on Sunday.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 13, 1991
