“After my ninth day at Mehta Police Station I was transferred to CIA Staff, a special investigations unit at Amritsar, I was, kept there for over 10 days without the right to visitors, correspondence or medical treatment.
“I was locked in a room approximately 9 by 9° which was totally enclosed and had no openings such as windows or ventilations. The conditions there were very hot.
“At night I was subjected to systematic torture by the Police within the confines of this room. This consisted of electrification with alive wire of several pans of my body, the scars of which I still bear. Also I was made to lie on a hot plate and bright light was shown in my eye making any rest or sleep impossible. I was also badly beaten by police using sticks. This torture was carried out each and every night and throughout the night. Whilst beating me, the Police would keep asking me where I got weapons from even though I denied possessing any. I felt that they were going to kill me.
“On the seventh night at about 1:00 a.m., I was taken out of my cell and bundled into jeep which apart from the river contained one Police Inspector and four policemen, all of them were drunk and armed.
I was blindfolded before the jeep was driven off and whilst inside the jeep I was subjected to beatings by the policemen using rifle butts.
I was driven 25 miles or so the edge of the river Beas. There I was taken out of the Jeep, still blindfolded, and told to run. I refused to budge since I knew that if Tran I would probably be shot for trying to escape. I was then hit by rifle butts and flung onto the river bank.
“I lay motionless by the river edge for about five minutes, then I got up and took off my blindfold. One Police Officer again said, “Run, we are going to shoot you” However, I again refused to doo, even had I wanted to nun I would have been unable to, 9 severely had T been beaten.
“The Police wanted to kill me”
“Eventually two of the policemen came down the bank and took me up and put me back in the jeep and said that they were sparing me.
“A couple of days later, I was transferred to Gumtala Jail where no further torture was carried out. At this point of time I was extremely weak, unable to walk and my eyesight suffered due to the bright lights I had been subjected to. I was eventually released on bail, and my case was still pending when I escaped to Britain.”
The police, having failed to get anything, falsely charged them under the Arms Actin case of FIR No.99 dated 184.1984. When they came out of jail on bail Karamjit Singh immediately left the country. Navnit Singh and Nirbhai Singh in the meantime, were acquitted by the Designated Court at “Amritsar on Sept.21, 1985.
Earlier Karamjit Singhs father in law Gurvail Singh, too, was prosecuted under TADA by the Jandiala (Amritsar) police.
Of late, Nirbhai Singh (31) was picked up by the Mehta police on Nov.18, 1990 when he was coming to his village on scooter near Jalah Usman village. He was shifted to the Mall Mandi, Amritsar the same day.
His father Gurvail Singh sent registered letters on 19-11-90. To Punjab Home Secretary, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Count and PHRO seeking their intervention in to matter as he feared liquidation of his son at the hands of the police. The PHRO received no information after that.
Nirbhai Singh was, perhaps, picked up by the police a she had been helping the PHRO in its task of sending representations abroad opposing the proposed deportation of Kermit Singh.
UK urged not to deport Karamjit Singh
So, given the liquidation of Sikh youths in faked encounters by the Indian armed forces, especially those considered “terrorists” and those targeted for their peaceful political activates, Karamjit Singh’s deportation to India would make him vulnerable to such risk of elimination. Even the marked supporters and protagonists of Khalistan were shot dead in cold blood inside Jal. PHRO, in its report, The Killing in Sangrur Jail (The Fascist Offensive in Punjab, pp.5761), has given a detailed account of how three under trial’s were Killed as result of police firing in the jail on October 14,1987.
In light of these happenings, the PHRO tried to impress upon the UK government in its representation that Karamjit Singh should not be deported to India and be tried in the UK court if he had violated any law of the land.
A monthly watch by PHRO .
During May, 1991, the security forces in Punjab, according to PHRO information, liquidated 243 active Sikhs in different ways. Of them, 164 were killed in alleged armed clashes with the police and paramilitary forces, 32 were eliminated allegedly in inter group rivalry, 38 others were killed by either police “cats” or state sponsored vigilante groups.
104 Sikhs connected with the ongoing. Punjab struggle were arrested by the police, 44 Sikh activists disappeared at the hands of the security forces and the whereabouts of a number of others earlier abducted by the police remained unknown.
Militant violence on the other hand, took 231 lives of security forces personnel and others during the month of May. 48 security men were killed and 72 injured as a result of armed clashes with militants, over three dozen civilians, both Hindu and Sikh became target of militants’ wrath, They were shot dead by militants allegedly being traitors, police informers or “cats” etc. Eleven persons including police officials and their relatives were abducted by militants to counter the kidnapping of militant’s relatives by the police.
The militants killed in the alleged en counters included Panthic Committee member Amrik Singh Harchowal, S.S.F (Daljit Singh) activists Baldev Singh Bhakumajra and Gurmit Singh Ropar, KLE (Budhsinghwala) Lt. Gen Ravinder Singh Kaleke, KCF activists Balvinder Sing Rajbir Singh, Gurmit Singh and his wife Balwinder Kaur, Charan Singh and Man; Kaur, BTKF activist Prabh Singh Canadian and Babbar Khalsa International activists Jaswinder Singh Kala, Nishan Singh Saifdipur, Harjt Singh Jauhgrian, Devidder Singh and Jagtar Singh. A number of Sikhs were killed in the “encounters” as unidentified militants.
The systematic liquidation of Sikh youths
A systematic elimination of Sikh youths, after they were picked up from their homes or from their relatives houses, was carried out unabated. Out of 32 killed in “inter group warfare” included KCF activists Lakhbir Singh Lakha, Karnial Singh Babbar Kundan Singh, Bhuupinder Singh Bhinda, Gurnam Singh, Rajvinder Singh Gora, Tarlok Singh Kotla Sadar, Darshan Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Sikander Singh and Paramjit Singh, 21 other youths were also killed in the same fashion. They were shown as unidentified terrorists. The police claimed to have recovered their bullet ridden bodies from different places.
Nine youths, who had been shown to have died by taking cyanide either in police custody or its dragnet, included Tejpal Singh Bhakumajra, Balbir Singh Gujiran, Major Singh (KCF), Rachhpal Singh Kbutar, Babbar Jagir Singh and Agir Singh Begawal. The other three who allegedly took poison were shown unidentified.
After the killing of six innocent Sikh farmers at Nathuke Burj village in Amritsar district by the army, the second major action it launched was on May 25-27, 1991 at Sangha village near Tarn Taran Gang rape and molestation of Sikh women followed the army action in which seven Sikhs were killed on May 26.
PHRO made investigations into the incident. A team comprising D.S. Gill and Mohinder Singh Grewal visited the village for an on the spot investigation. They recorded statements of more than two dozen victims and eye witnesses who gave harrowing details of the murder, mayhem and destruction caused by the army and the paramilitary forces, apart from pointing out cases of mass rape.
The security forces were commanded by Colonel B.C. Lugwal, Commanding Officer of the Second Batallion of the Dogra Regiment.
Army killed six Sikh devotees
According to Lambardar (village revenue official) Shangara Singh and Avtar Singh, a member of the village panchayat, jawans (army personnel of the Dogra Regiment laid siege of the village on May 25 at about 11 pam, (night) and remained stationed there for three days pretending to search for certain militants allegedly staying there. They were later joined in by men of the CRPF and the Punjab Police to make total strength of more than 2000 men.
In the course of the operation, the army Personnel killed seven persons including six Sikhs engaged in the construction of a Gurdwara in the village to perpetuate the memory of the sixth Sigh guru, Guru Hargobind. None of them was armed, nor did any One fire a shot at the army men. Two of them Baba Kabul Singh and blawinder Singh were killed while they were travelling by a TTATA 407 “Kar Seva” vehicle Aadinpur village to meet the ailing 90-yr- old Kar Seva” baba, Basta Singh.
An eye-Witness revealed to the PHRO team that the “Kar seva truck was just near the village on May 26 at 5:30 am. When army jawans stopped the truck and asked Baba Kabul Singh, his driver Kashmir Singh and Balwinder Singh to get down. They came out and disclosed their identity. The army personnel opened fire saying that “You all are terrorists”. Baba Kabul Singh and Balwinder Singh died on the spot.
“The driver Kashmir Singh, wounded in the shoulder, fled towards the Gurdwara, hardly half Kilometer from the spot. He informed the other evaders (devotees), about the killing of the baba. He too was killed along with three other devotees en gaged in the construction by the army near the Gurdwara. The other two killed were Gurdial Singh Gug (16) and Tilu (nickname). The third was thrown into a canal after he had been killed. Thus he remained unidentified.
In addition, the only militant staying in the village, Major General Gurbhej Singh, Bheja of the Bhindranwale Tigers of Khalistan Force (BTKF), consumed cyanide and died after he was hunted down, the Army Commanding Officer recorded in his FIR (No.11 dated 25.5.1991 lodged at Sedar Police Station, Tarn Taran).
The aftermath of the killings
According to the PHRO investigation, no encounter took place in the village and the security forces suffered no causality. The killings of all the Sikhs were wholly unwarranted and unprovoked.
The aftermath of the killings was the gang rape and molestation of women, looting of the villagers’ property and ran sacking of the entire village. The men were separated from women by an order of the army announced over the Gurdwara public address system. All the men of the village collected at Gurdwara a about among May 26 following the announcement. The women and children remained in their homes. In absence of male members of the families, the army NGS Commandos, the CRPF and the police then started house to house search of the entire village.
In the afternoon the men collected at the Gurdwara heard a hue and cry of the women and children. A few old women came running and weeping to the Gurdwara around 6 p.m. They informed the menfolk that “their mothers, sisters and daughters are being made victims of sexual abuses including rapes. The armed forces are behaving like violent beasts.”
Avtar Singh, member’s panchayat, along with Kamal Singh and Pritam Singh informed Colonel B.C. Lugwal about the misdeeds of the security forces but to avail. The armed personal continued trespassing into the houses and at gunpoint molesting and gang raping the women without any consideration of thief 886 married or unmarried, disclosed one Buta Singh.
A 17 -yr-old unmarried girl (Darshan Kaur daughter of Bela Singh, crippled old man) was raped by three CRPF men at gun point. The Security personnel also molested mother (Chhindo) and maternal aunt Harjit kaur).In the course of the incident, the mother resisted. The CRPS men broke her arms. The father of the girl could do nothing as he was confined to bed. The only younger brother, Charan Singh was captivated at the Gurdwara.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 11, 1991
