CHANDIGARH: Punjab these days is passing through a strange terror organized groups of armed men in uniform raid villages at night on pretext of carrying out house to house search but decamp with cash, gold and other valuables of the public.
Most reports from the affected villages speak of the raiders speaking Hindi. Strangely no dacoit group has so far been nabbed by the security forces despite the fact that Indian army and other security forces are present in the slate in unprecedented strength. Punjab police chief K.P.S. Gill does not blame militants for the dacoities. He also denies the involvement of police in the crimes. On the contrary, Gill says it is the handiwork of certain criminal gangs belonging to “other statics”. The police chief claims that his organization has made enquiries to arrive at that
Conclusion.
According to the residents of Pandon Kad, Hoshiarpur district, armed men in C.RPF, uniform came for search in. the village at night test week and took away R.s 4iakh from 11 houses, The public informed the Deputy Commissioner and the S.S.P. of the district that they themselves would take care of the village at night and the security forces would be expected to remain in position beyond the road surrounding the village. Instead, 2 groups of armed men came at night and insisted on carrying out a “search”. The villagers refused to allow them entry into the houses and surrounded them. This 35 strong gang of dacoits came by a private truck (P.UJ 1224). Some of the dacoits Tan away as the people collected to challenge them. The public surrounded them. But in the” morning 2 police party headed by D.S.P.(R) came to the village to rescue the dacoits from the villagers, The party started firing on the villagers to scare them away $0 that the dacoits could be freed. In the process, nine villagers suffered gunshot injuries. One of them, Vijay Kumar, a Hindu, died while being taken to a hospital at Ludhiana.
This incident gives lie to the Punjab police claim that outside gangs are involved in dacoits. Even if the gangs belong to other states, they clearly have the support and protection of Punjab police.as is evident from the manner in which they were protected by the D.S.P. (R) and his team.
Thousands of men and women collected on Hoshisrpur Phagwara road on Tuesday to protest against police B.S.F. firing on the public. They refused to vacate the road until last reports reaching here. The public accused the security forces of committing dacoits and protecting the uniformed dacoits.
Earlier, the police fired upon a mass rally at Karala village near Banur in Patiala district when the public was protesting against dacoities by armed men. Six villagers were injured. The villagers suspected the involvement of suspected the involvement of security forces in a spare of decoities burglaries and thefts in the area.
Similar incidents occurred in villages near Ludhiana and Jalandhar, Reports of dacoities also came from Sangrur, Faridkot and other districts of Malwa and Doaba.
Observers feel that a security force other than the army is involved in the dacoities. There appears to be tussle between the army and the non- army security forces on who should have the last word in Punjab, while the army is primarily motivated to create an atmosphere congenial enough to fight Pakistan as and when necessary the other forces seem determined two discredit the army to carry out their own game-plans. Many observers, however, predict that the Indian army too, will join the other gangs of dacoits to loot Punjab because Delhi is deter minced to teach Punjab a lesson.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 20, 1991
