While Baldev Singh was killed as a result of the torture the other detainee Satnam Singh was sent to Amritsar jail and charged under sections 3 and 4 of T.A.D.A. Later he was shifted to Sangrur jail where he is still languishing. (As related by Sawinder Singh a school teacher of Gujjarpura and elder brother of Baldev Singh.)

The team was informed by the terror-stricken villagers how the CRPF continued harassing them and made their life miserable The personnel of 10th Battalion pick up any one who comes to visit Bhangali and Gujjarpura villages take him t their Head-quarters at Triewal for interrogation and torture him physically. Only a few days back a relative of Satnam Singh S/O Teja Singh had come from Ludhiana He was immediately picked up by the security personnel and tortured. These villagers feel completely cut off from the rest of the world when their relatives and friends avoid visiting them for fear of torture at the hands of CRPF personnel.

Humiliation and filthy abuses

Around the same period a raid was conducted on the village by the CRPF and the police personnel from Kathu Nangal police station headed by Inspector Mohinder Singh. All the villagers were ordered to assemble at the village Gurdwara where they were subjected to humiliation and filthy abuses. One Jasbir Singh who had come to the village to visit his father-in-law Bakhshish Singh was made a special target simply because he hailed from Zaffarwal village and was an Amritdhari (a baptized Sikh) Incidentally top militant leader Bhai Wassan Singh hails from that village.

The PHRO team was informed by villagers that there was virtually an undeclared curfew in the area. Even if a person goes to these fields to water his crops he is held by the security forces and made to lie on the ground the whole night. As a result most farmers forego their tum for water from the irrigation system when it falls at night. Even the womenfolk find it extremely difficult to go out into the fields to ease themselves for fear of harassment by security forces.

In the first week of August 1990 Lakwhinder Singh son of Santokh Singh of Bhangali village was picked up by Inspector Mohinder Singh of Kathu Nangal police station and sent to Mall Mandi Interrogation Centre at Amritsar at the orders of Senior Superintendent of Police Amritsar Paramjit Singh Gill. He was kept there for four days and tortured in the following ways:

i) He was given electric shocks on sensitive parts of the body

ii) His legs were stretched apart up to 180 degrees and

iii) He was hung from the roof with rope tied to the wrists with head pointing downwards

During this time of interrogation he was repeatedly asked about the whereabouts of Dharam Singh Kashtiwal a Sikh militant leader. He was continuously subjected to inhuman torture even though he had told the security personnel that he knew nothing about the militant leader

Difficult for women to go out

Likewise the people of Talwandi Khuman village also feel extremely harassed due to the permanent presence of the CRPF in the village. There are two permanent Nagas (Check posts) on both sides of the village one at the railway crossing and the other in front of the residence of Daya Singh. The women of the village being afraid of the CRPF men never dare come towards these Nagas. If anyone does happen to pass by these check posts he is humiliated and becomes victim of ridicule and bawdy and lewd remarks. Since the villages do not have toilets in the houses and the villagers have to go out into the fields to case themselves in the morning they find it very inconvenient because their privacy has been encroached upon by these CRPF personnel. The villagers think of these security personnel as undesirable elements who have no regard for womenfolk of the village. The ladies when asked about the basis of their fear of CRPF men remarked that ‘even the ghosts are scared of these uniformed rascals’.

The innocent villagers of Talwandi Khuman are at a loss to understand why CRPF check-posts have been set up in their village when not even a single person from the village has gone underground nor has there been any case registered against any of the village residents.

The residents of Chachowali had similar tales to tell. The security forces raided the house of Sulakhan Singh whose son has gone underground. The house is situated on the outskirts of the village and at the time of the raid Sulakhan Singh himself was not at home. So they picked up the two ladies of the house brought them to the village and humiliated them in front of the villagers.

Mangal Singh and Baldev Singh of the same village were intercepted by the police when they were coming back to the village on a scooter. They were picked up taken to the Mall Mandi torture center and subjected to third degree methods of interrogation by police Inspector Gurmail Singh Bat. Although they were set free after a fortnight their scooter with Registration No. PUQ 1110 has not been released so far.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 18, 1991