General Labh Singh’s Police Encounter
By Rup Tara-Tanda
On Jan 12, 1988, the news that Gen Labh Singh of the Khalistan Commando Force had been killed in an encounter with the police at the GT road bypass, spread like wildfire in Tanda and its neighboring areas.
He was accused of being involved in a 22 lakh bank robbery case in Talwaraa5. 7 Crore bank robbery case in Ludhiana, an attack on Ribeiro, murders of Hind Samachar Editor, Romesh Chander, DIG A.S. Atwal, DSP Bachan Singh, Harbans Lal Khanna ex MLA, A.P Gand Additional Sessions Judge and IG (jail) T.C. Katoch etc.
Gen Labh Singh’s body was lying in a field about 100 yards from the gas station of Harbans Singh, Swaran Singh near the Tanda bypass, on the GT road. It was heavily guarded.
IDENTIFICATION: His body was identified by his wife Devinder Kaur, at about 10:15. After this the body was shown to one Satwinder Kaur, of Khudde, who said that this was not the person who had come to her house the other night. Unlike other police encounters, everybody knew that this was the body of Gen Labh Singh. How and why this news was spread remains a mystery.
STORIES OF THE ENCOUNTER: I heard an unsubstantiated story from BSF commandant Basaria in which he said that
“This person was accompanying a bullock cart when our jawans got suspicious.”
However, there was no mention of the bullock cart either at the scene of the incident or in the police report. The other story was narrated to me by DIG D.R Bhatti. “Police had information that suspected terrorists visit contractor Gurdit Singh at Khudda ( a village 8 km from the GT road) and that they consider him a police informer. Last night five extremists came, threatened to kill him and bummed his house down. On their departure Gurdit Singh informed the police in Tanda, and the SHO Tanda organized check points.
A BSF patrol saw two men but they ran away when the party challenged them. The police opened fire killing one while the other managed to escape. He was later identified as Gen Labh Singh alias Sukha Sipai. This boosted the police morale at the cost of the militants.
THE SCENE: Gen Labh Singh’s body was clad in his underwear. His trunks were a spotless white while his vest was splattered with blood. He was wearing a small kirpan, a watch, a golden ring, and Kara. His hairs were open, his head was facing toward the right, his eyes were partially open and his mouth closed. His left arm was bent and bore lacerations. His wife said that when she identified him, he had a yellow under turban wrapped around his left wrist, which was opened up in her presence by the police. He had been shot on the left side of his chest, near his heart and one of the bullets had hit his neck.
His legs were wide apart and bore not even a spot of blood. There was minimal blood at the scene. Both the legs and the left arm were mud stained, which could have happened when the body was moved over wet ground. Two spotless white clothes which appeared to be a sheet and a bush shirt were seen lying close to him. There was not a spot of blood anywhere else.
PERMISSION TO LOOK: DIG Jalandhar Bhatti, and SSP Azhar Alam allowed the people to look at the body at 11:30. People formed a long queue to do so. During this time Azhar Alam would say, ‘do you know who this is?” He is Gen Labh Singh of the
Khalistan Commando Force and we have killed him.” He repeated these three or four times. The people estimated to be 10,000 queued up till 12 when the body was removed for the post mortem.
KHUDA: I went to Gurdit Singh’s house at 1 1:30 am. His daughter in law Satwinder Kaur was wearing a make shift bandage around her head. The house had an iron door. An inside door and a dining table, with school books on it, in the verandah had been damaged in a fire. Satwinder Kaur said that this had been done by three slim men. The police is looking for them. The contractor’s wife said that her husband was in Ludhiana and had not come home for a few days.
BELONGINGS: According to the police Gen Labh Singh had his clothes, his shoes a Pakistani made pistol weighing 1 kg and 280 grams, 11 cartridges and a cyanide like substance, a diary, some papers (a document which analyzed the weakness of the Sikh movement and suggested ways to overcome them.) His pockets were empty.
SUSPICIONS: Not only me but everyone who saw the scene felt that it was a fake police encounter. Let us see what shows it to be one:
A :The police claims that Gen Labh Singh was shot while running away. In that case the bullets should have penetrated from the back exiting from the chest. The burst of the bullets was from the left of his chest aimed at the heart and one bullet has been shot from the front.
B. If he had been shot while standing or while running the blood would have flowed down towards the legs staining his underwear and legs. However Gen Labh Singh’s stomach, legs and trunks did not have any blood spots on them, whereas his left arms did so, indicating that he had been shot while lying down.
C. At least five liters of blood should have flowed out of a healthy person like Gen Labh Singh, which would have spread over a large area. As has been stated earlier there was minimal blood on the ground.
D. The body was officially identified at 10:15 am but the news of his death had spread around the area much earlier. How did this happen? People say that the police themselves spread the news so that a large number of people would gather at the scene and they would be impressed by the police.
E. Some people going to the farmers market between 4:30 and 5 am saw two police jeeps parked by the road and a body lying on the side of the road. It is possible that these vehicles had brought the body from somewhere, but there were no blood spots on the road. It is suspected that the body was wrapped in a cloth and brought here.
F. If there was firing at the crack of dawn it would have been heard for a long distance. However nobody heard a sound even though this was a densely populated area. According to the police 9 rounds of the SLR rifle 7. 62 were fired.
G. Police all over the world never identifies their informers but in this case DIG police Bhatti identified Gurdit Singh Contractor as an informer.
Gurdit Singh Contractor denies this allegation. He is not considered totally trustworthy in the panthic and militant circles, but by the same token they do not consider him totally unreliable either. He says, “If I had got Gen Labh Singh apprehended by the police why would it expose me? At the same time he had along with one Billa, got his hair cut at Delhi on the 1 2th. Gurdit Singh Contractor was given the license for a .32 revolver a few days after the incident. (Eventually the police sent him to America).
H. Regarding the lacerations on his wrist, it is a fact that severe can be caused by a Kara digging into the flesh. The lacerations on Gen Aretha probably were the result of this body being carried from one place to another.
I. It’s known that Gen Labh Singh always carried a Mauser pistol and some cash with him. Both these are not mentioned among the things said to have been recovered from him. They were evidently taken away either by the police or the informant. This question of the heavy Pakistani made pistol recovered from him it is possible at this would have some international implications. .
J. No one uses cannon to kill a sate The police claim that Gen Labh Singh set fire to Gurdit Singh Contractor’s house is ludicrous since this could have been done by any notice.
These facts help us in unraveling the mystery of this encounter or murder:
- Lack of blood at the spot indicates that he was killed some place else and that this is a least the forth place where the body was kept. :
- That he was shot while lying down is indicated by the trunks and legs being free from blood and the left arm bearing blood spots.
- That he was killed while sleeping is indicated by his attire, and by the fact that the eyes had a surprise look, as if he woke up in surprise but could not do anything.
- The manner in which the police officers behaved at the scene was quite unusual. Jalandhar SSP Azhar Alam said that “we have killed him” on at least 5 occasions. DSP Dasuha Ajit Singh seemed to be walking on air, and was seen preening himself before the journalists and press photographers.
