Under Sl. Nos. 35/78 and 36/79, the list identifies two 28 May 1989 cremations carried out by ASI Shingara Singh of Harike police station under FIR No. 46/89. They are of: [1] Bachittar Singh, s/o Kartar Singh Jat, r/o Kalra, and [2] Balwinder Singh alias Pappu, s/o Joginder Singh Jat, r/o Lahuka. The postmortem reports are marked as VKA 22/89 and VKA 23/89. The cause of death is given as “police encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in the case of Bachitter Singh through its Incident-Report Form No. CCDP/01696. The main informant is the victim’s nephew Gurnam Singh.

Twenty-four year old Bachitter Singh, s/o Kartar Singh and Balwant Kaur, was a resident of Sidhwan village, post office and police station Khalra, in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. Bachitter, who began to work at his father’s agricultural farm after completing his matriculation, was unmarried.

A baptized Sikh, Bachitter Singh was deeply affected by the June 1984 “Operation Blue Star” and began to associate with persons who talked about developing an armed resistance against the government of India. When the police began to raid his house, Bachitter dodged his arrest and went underground. The police officials illegally detained his family members on different occasions and tortured them in custody for information leading to his arrest. But they did not know Bachitter’s whereabouts and were unable to provide any information.

In the second week of May 1989, Bachitter was traveling in a three-wheeler taxi from village Gaggo Booha to Jhabbal when he was arrested near a checkpost set up by the Jhabbal police station. Bachitter tried to hide his identity, but the police became suspicious and arrested him. The three-wheeler belonged to Kewal Singh of Sidhwan village, known to Bachitter’s family. Kewal Singh went to Khalra village and immediately informed Bachitter’s family about the arrest.

Three days after his arrest, Jhabbal police brought Bachitter to his house for a search. All of the family members and several residents of the village saw Bachitter Singh in police custody. The search did not lead to the recovery of anything incriminating. The family members approached several influential persons of the area to intervene with the police to save Bachitter’s life. But no one was able to help.

On 29 May 1989, several newspapers published a report about an encounter near Keerian Wala village, which the Harike police had staged to show that Bachitter Singh and his associate Balwinder Singh of Luhka village, recorded in the CBI’s list as Lahuka, had been killed. Bachitter’s family members then went to Harike police station to ask for the dead body, but were told that the cremation had already been performed. The family was unable to take any action.

According to Gurnam Singh, our informant in this case, three other persons of his neighboring village Sidhwan were also arrested and killed by the police. They are:

[1] Fatta Singh, s/o Samunder Singh,
[2] Karaj Singh, and
[3] Jagga Singh, s/o Jagtar Singh. ')"

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