NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has been sitting for free and a hall years on a report submitted by the National Commission for the Minorities, very clearly indicting the UP police for taking of 10 passengers from a bus at Pilibhit and eliminating them in three fake encounters in July 1991.
What is worse the passenger were said to be pilgrims from Hayoor Sahib in Maharashura
Within 10 days of the grisly incident, Commission members, B.S. Ramoowalia and Vardarajan, visited the spot, met several people and 10wards the end of August 1991 submitted their report to the Home Minister and the Prime Minister. In addition to the 10, the report says there were possibly two or three more male passengers including one Talwinder Singh who were taken off the bus and Killed. There were two focal issues on which the on-the-spot study was conducted Were the deceased terrorists or were they militants? Were the encounters genuine or false?
On the question of whether eight of the 10 killed were militants (reportedly from Punjab), the Commission said they should be presumed innocent confirmation is obtained about their status as wanted militants from the SSP. Gurdaspur other SPs as well as from other unimpeachable, valid and relevant sources,
Asking for a more detailed probe into the death of the remaining two local (Pilibhit) deceased-Lakhwinder Singh and Narinder Singh- the Commission said they too should be presumed innocent.
However, no action seems to have been taken on their report. In any case the Commission did not get any feedback. Situated in the dingy Lok Nayak Bhavan, the work of the low profile Commission, which does not believe in publicity, has been gathering dust. Though the Commission passed a resolution on the misuse of TADA well before the National Commission on Human Rights, the credit for it has been given to the latter.
But the killing of under trials in the Pilibhit jail and the recent Supreme Court indictment of 18 UP policemen for the abduction and alleged killing of a sewadar of Delhi’s Gurdwara, Rakabganj, in a fake encounter in October 1992 has given the Commission hope that redressed is possible if someone takes to the Supreme Court.
The killings were reported extensively in the media and drew loud protests from all quarters particularly from the Sikh community and a wide cross section of political parties. The UP government ordered a judicial inquiry though the demand for a CBI inquiry was turned down. The SP of Pilibhit, Tripathi was transferred.
The report says that the UP police claimed that the SSP or Gurdaspur had confirmed that of the 10 deceased, eight were militants from Gurdaspur district of Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 3, 1995
