Golden Temple of Amritsar, the police began to arrest and interrogate people

Under Sl. Nos. 58/149, 59/150, 60/151 and 61/152, the list identifies four 31 October 1989 cremations carried out by SHO Gurjeet Singh of Valtoha police under FIR No. 108/89. They are of [1] Resham Singh, s/o Tarlok Singh Jat, r/o Varlia, [2] Balbir Singh alias Beera, s/o Hazara Singh, r/o Dhulkohna, PS Khemkaran, [3] Puran Singh alias Tunda, s/o Gian Singh Jat, r/o Kuharka, PS Patti and [4] Gurudev Singh, s/o Piara Singh, r/o Ratoke. The postmortem reports are marked as SLG?14/89, SLG?15/89, SLG?16/89 and SLG?17/89. The cause of death in all cases is given to be “police encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in the cases of Balbir Singh, Pooran Singh and Gurudev Singh through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01504, 01574, and 01682. The main informants are Balbir Singh’s brother Subeg Singh; Pooran Singh’s father Gian Singh; and Gurudev’s cousin Dr. Balwinder Singh.

Forty-five year old Balbir Singh, son of Hazara Singh and Gulab Kaur, was a farmer resident of Doohal Nau village, mentioned in the CBI’s list as Dhulkohna, post office Mastgarh, under Khemkaran police station, in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. He was married to Shindo and was the father of three sons and a daughter.

In his younger days, Balbir was known as a wrestler and had won many awards in local competitions. In 1975, he got involved in a violent quarrel resulting in the death of his adversary. Because of this incident, he spent seven years in jail.

After his release from prison, Balbir took to farming, but the police suspected him of smuggling weapons across the border with Pakistan, and arrested him for interrogation on a number of occasions. They implicated him in a number of criminal cases, but all failed because of insufficient evidence. The police continued to pick him up illegally for interrogation under torture. Fed up by the harassment, Balbir left his home and went underground.

Twenty-year old Pooran Singh, s/o Gian Singh and Prakash Kaur, was a Sikh priest and singer, resident of village Kuharka, post office Shahbazpur, under Patti police station, in Tarn Taran subdivision of Amritsar district. The eldest of four brothers, Pooran had received his religious education at Dam Dami Taksal, the center of orthodox Sikh learning once headed by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He was unmarried and lived with his parents.

After the June 1984 military assault on the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the police began to arrest and interrogate people who had any association with Dam Dami Taksal. In the same process, the police arrested and interrogated Pooran Singh under torture several times. He was also charged with terrorist offences under TADA and jailed for about two and a half years. Even after his acquittal by the court, the police continued to detain and torture him brutally. Pooran was unable to tolerate the situation and began to stay away from his house. He joined a Sikh missionary group associated with Dam Dami Taksal in traveling through Punjab’s countryside and in delivering the Sikh religious message. However, he returned home frequently and did not hide from the police.

Twenty-year old Gurudev Singh, son of Piara Singh and Darshan Kaur, was a resident of Rattoke village under Khemkaran police station in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. After completing his education, Gurudev assisted his father in running a small flour mill at the village that specialized in grinding wheat into flour for domestic use. He was unmarried.

In 1987, the police arrested him on the suspicion of maintaining contacts with members of the Sikh militant undergound. After his interrogation under torture, Guurdev was charged with offences under TADA and jailed. After serving one year, he received a bail order from the court and was released. The police, however, continued to harass him.

In the last week of October 1989, a joint force of the CRPF and Valtoha police arrested Gurudev when he was coming down a mud trail from village Cheema. The security personnel took him back to Cheema, near village Chunga, and on the basis of information provided by him, arrested three other persons from the surrounding villages. They were: [1] Resham Singh, s/o Tarlok Singh, a resident of village Makhu, and not Varlia, as the CBI’s list mentions, [2] Balbir Singh alias Beera, s/o Hazara Singh from Dhool Kohna, also known as Bhoora Kohna, under Khemkaran police station, and [3] Pooran Singh, s/o Gian Singh from Rattoke village.

Pooran Singh, s/o Gian Singh, the Sikh missionary associated with Dam Dami Taksal from Kuharka village, was arrested from a house in village Bhandal. Soon after his arrest, some people who had taken part in his religious meetings went to Kuharka village and informed his father Gian Singh about it. The same day, Gian Singh, accompanied by the head of his village council, met the SHO of Valtoha police station who denied having arrested Pooran Singh. Gian Singh and his sympathizers then went to other police stations, including Bhikhiwind, and met several officers who all denied the custody. Gian Singh continued to receive information that his son and three others were being held and tortured at Valtoha police station and the CIA staff interrogation center at Patti.

On 31 October 1989, several Punjabi newspapers reported an encounter between a group of militants and the Valtoha police near village Algon in which five militants, including Pooran Singh, had allegedly died. The police refused to return the dead bodies to the family members and carried out the cremations after their postmortem. However, Gian Singh was able to see Pooran Singh’s dead body at Patti hostpital and also attend the cremation, along with members of his village council, at Patti.

Gurudev’s family members did not receive the information about the cremation in time to attend. The police continued to harass his father Piara Singh and other members of his family, even after the killing of Gurudev, so much so that they decided to shift their residence to Amritsar city. Piara Singh himself died two years after the incident. According to family members, his death was the result of his grief and shock about Gurudev’s unjust killing.

Although the newspaper reports about the encounter in which both Pooran Singh and Gurudev Singh died refered to the killing of five militants, the CBI’s list shows only four cremations. No other cremation on 31 October 1989, carried out by Valtoha police, is recorded in any other list also.

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