Under Sl. No. 43/113, the list identifies the 21 August 1989 cremation of Kartar Singh, s/o Makhan Singh Jat, r/o Bhai Ladoo, carried out by ASI Mohal Lal of Bhikhiwind police station under FIR No. 58/89. The mostmortem report is marked as VSU 39/89 and the death is attributed to “firearm injuries”.

The Committee has the following information through its Incident-Report Form No. CCDP/01589. The main informant is the victim’s son Sukhdev Singh.

Fifty-five year old Kartar Singh, s/o Makhan Singh and Dial Kaur, was a small farmer resident of Bhai Ladhu village, post office Kalsian Kalan under Bhikhiwind police station, in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. He was married to Gopal Kaur and had two adult sons, Sukhdev Singh and Resham Singh, who are now 40 and 31. He had no background of political or militant associations and the police had never arrested him in connection with any case.

During the night of 21 August 1989, Kartar Singh was watering his fields when a group of Bhikhiwind police officials combing the area for militants opened fire and shot him dead. Although the family members heard the gunshots and were anxious, they did not step out of the house to check if Kartar Singh was safe because of the atmosphere of terror. The next morning, around 9 a.m., some policemen came to Kartar Singh’s house and informed the family members about what they called “an accident”. Expressing regret, they took the family members to Patti civil hospital and handed over the dead body, after the postmoretm, to the family. The cremation was carried out at the village cremation ground.

The next day, all Punjab newspapers published a story, based on police sources, that described the incident as an “enounter” and Kartar Singh as a dreaded militant. The family was unable to take any action aginst the police. Kartar Singh’s father could not bear the shock of his son’s unjust killing and died three months later.

Once again, we see that a cremation that was carried out by family members at their village is recorded by the CBI as a police cremation of a killed militant conducted at Tarn Taran cremation ground. ')"

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