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In the last few weeks we have been reading and
learning about hundreds that supposedly died in
Panjab many years ago that are, all of a sudden,
discovered to be alive. Is it coincidence that
many have been 'reborn' as helpers of top police
officers or become police officers themselves?
Or do these revelations confirm what many that
supported the true freedom struggle claimed at
that time and have maintained to date. Namely,
that the Indian authorities were infiltrating
the freedom movement and encouraging some to discredit
it by killing innocent people in high profile
and well publicised incidents. These often involved
the random killing of innocent people in Panjab
or taking people off buses and shooting them at
point blank range.
A Sikh Federation (UK) spokesman said: "This
state-sponsored killing of innocent people created
the ideal atmosphere for the police, that allowed
them to use excessive force, stage fake encounters,
torture and disappear at will, use extortion and
kill anyone that dared associate with the Sikh
independence movement." Recent specific exposures
in the Outlook magazine have shown in some cases
police used fake encounters to kill innocent Sikhs
and then claim large rewards.
Gurnam Singh of Bundala village, Ferozepur district,
left the Golden Temple days before Operation Bluestar.
In 1994, he was declared killed in an encounter
in Ropar district. The 1994 ‘killing’ earned the
Ropar police a reward. Jagdish Singh Deeshe was
supposedly to have been ‘killed’ in 1993. A police
officer was awarded a medal and the Rs 5 lakh
award for the ‘effort’. It has been reported that
some have experienced considerable difficulties
for exposing police for not only conducting fake
encounters, but also claiming large 'fake' rewards.
The existence of such individuals has been well
known to human rights lawyers and organisations
for some time.
What is less known until very recently is how
the police themselves have illegally ‘helped’
some in their 'rehabilitation'. Sukhwinder Singh
‘Sukhi’, once an ‘area commander’ of the Khalistan
Liberation Force (KLF), was declared dead in police
records. But he was found living in Jalandhar
under a new name—Harjit Singh Kahlon. All the
cases against him have been closed as ‘untraced’,
and Sukhi enjoys the patronage of none other than
the DGP, Punjab Police, S.S. Virk. As for his
rehabilitation package, not only does it include
a tours and travel business, but also accommodation
in government complexes in Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
DGP Virk has said that there are at least 300
such ‘rehabilitated’ persons or what are more
commonly referred to as 'black cats' who have
been extended police help because of the assistance
they rendered in undermining the freedom movement.
"They are the unsung heroes who deserve sympathy
and gratitude," he says.
Sarabjit Singh, who was DGP in Punjab police from
1999 to 2000, is livid. Talking to Outlook, he
said, "The DGP can exercise considerable
discretion while recruiting policemen and can
relax physical criteria in deserving cases. But
the discretion does not extend to waiving the
police verification of candidates or recruiting
them under false names. Clearly verification of
these people was either not done or was fabricated."
Outlook visited one such constable at House No.
F25 in Chhoti Baradari in Jalandhar. Kewal Singh
once of the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), today
wears the respectable veneer of constable Satnam
Singh. His wife Manjit Kaur refused to answer
any queries except to say that her husband is
in the police, but his neighbours did say that
Satnam and Sukhi were in touch with each other.
Sukhi, in fact, was staying in the same colony
till a couple of years ago. He has since shifted
to a bigger house in a civilian locality.
Other Sukhi associates have also been traced.
Balkar Singh (Bittu) and Nimma John have been
recruited into the police. Nimma now works in
the intelligence wing of Ludhiana police and goes
by the name of Nirmaljit Singh. Tinu Bajwa alias
Satbir Singh is another accomplice who once operated
with Sukhi but who now lives in a police colony
in Ludhiana.
Ever since his cover was blown, Sukhi is being
closely guarded by the police. When Outlook interviewed
him in a Chandigarh market, he was accompanied
by an armed escort. Asked about it, he says he
and his ilk need protection from Khalistanis who
may still be active.
A Sikh Federation (UK) spokesman said: "With
those that supposedly died in encounters now found
alive, there are many obvious questions: Whose
bodies were shown as dead? How were police officers
allowed to claim and keep large financial rewards
for those that are now found to be alive? Why
were the police allowed to employ people to kill
innocents?"
The Sikh Federation (UK) learnt of the article
in Outlook in advance through its media contacts
and has been in touch with a BBC team that is
going to Panjab. The Federation are pushing the
BBC to produce a series of programmes or documentaries
on 'LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN'. A Federation spokesman
said: "They want the BBC to tell the Sikh
Story - A story of Indian betrayal, discrimination,
divide and rule, genocide, infiltration, mass
murder, abuse and silencing of one of the proudest
and most visible minorities in the world".
The programmes could cover the promises to Sikhs
before partition; the tragedy and loss of life
when Panjab was split; broken promises following
independence; the failings of the Indian Constitution
with regards to the Sikhs; the discrimination
against the people of the Panjab and the Panjabi
language; economic discrimination and exploitation
of Panjab's natural resources; the politics of
divide and rule; the peaceful agitation; genocide
of the Sikhs in June 1984 and November 1984; infiltration
of the freedom struggle; abuse of human rights;
elimination of human rights activists; how the
Indian authorities have been operating abroad
in the last 10 years to create internal divisions
in the Sikh Diaspora and stopping the truth about
human rights and the freedom struggle from emerging;
and why Amnesty International and the UN are being
prevented from entering Panjab and investigating.
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