The police in Punjab revised the death count in the bus massacre near Tanda from 24 to 22 and vowed to the gunmen who were allegedly followers of Sikh group leader who, the police said, had been killed in a “Sikh power struggle earlier this year.”
P.C. Dogra, a Deputy Inspector General of Police said the gunmen were taking revenge for the killing Of four Sikhs last month in a shootout with the police.
The four were in tum suspected’ ‘of killing two people in revenge for an earlier harassment of Sikhs by Hindu militants .
“This is a vicious circle” Mr. Dogra said, “These people exploit the situation and take revenge”,
It is thus clear that the harassment of Sikhs by Hindu militants led to the Killing of the two which brought about the killing of four Sikhs by the police which in turn Ted to the massacre of 22 near Tanda.
How are the Sikh freedom fighters then responsible for the episode? Clearly it is the harassment Of the Sikhs by Hindus which set the ball rolling and the Sikhs are being unnecessarily maligned and made the scape goats of police atrocities and humiliations.
It is also not understood in the absence of the arrests of the killers how the crime can be attributed to the Sikhs. The letter delivered to the police by the bus driver may be an attempt to hoodwink the authorities’ and put them on the wrong Path for investigation to harass innocent persons.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 19, 1986
