Police confiscated all valuable goods in the house

Under Sl. Nos. 99/284, 100/285, 101/286, 102/287 and 103/289, the list identifies five cremations carried out by SHO Surinder Singh of Valtoha police station on 5 November 1990 under FIR No. 118/90. They are of: [1] Balkar Singh alias Fauji, s/o Hari Singh, r/o Sarli Mandan, [2] Hakim Singh alias Hakku, s/o Gurmej Singh, r/o Dasoowal, [3] Sukhdev Singh, s/o Balbir Singh, r/o Dasoolpur, [4] Gulzar Singh alias Shopes, s/o Ajaib Singh, r/o Multan Bagh, and [5] Balkar Singh, s/o Karnail Singh, r/o Johal Singhwala. The postmortem reports are marked as MS 181/90, MS 189/90, MS 190/90, MS 191/90 and MS 193/90. The cause of death is given as “firearm injuries”.

The Committee has the following information in these cases through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01480 and 01530. The main informant is Balkar Singh’s brother Jaswant Singh, resident of Sarhalli Mandan, and Hakam Singh’s mother Gurmej Kaur.

Thirty-year old Balkar Singh alias Fauji, son of Hari Singh and Mohinder Kaur, was a resident of village Sarhalli Mandan, in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. He was a soldier of the Indian army and was married to Preetam Kaur. Their only son Balwinder Singh is now around 20.

After June 1984, Balkar was dismissed from the Indian army, but his family members do know what the charges were against him. According to his brother Jaswant Singh, Balkar was dismissed from service but was not punished with imprisonment.

Following his dismissal, Balkar returned to his village and started driving a public transport vehicle, known in rural Punjab as Gharoonka, a large noisy vehicle that runs on a tractor engine. The police illegally arrested Balkar a number of times in 1988 and interrogated him under brutal torture about his political and militant connections. He was not formally charged, but when the police raided his house again towards the end of 1988, Balkar dodged the arrest and went underground. The police started harassing his family members. The police confiscated all valuable goods in the house, including Balkar’s vehicle. The police detained Balkar’s brother Jaswant Singh and implicated him in a case under the Arms Act and TADA. He remained in jail for one year. Balkar’s cousin Balbir Kaur was married to Santokh Singh, son of Gurditt Singh of Sarhalli Mandan village. The police arrested Santokh Singh and his father Gurditt Singh from their house, interrogated them about Balkar’s whereabouts and then killed Santokh Singh in an encounter faked near village Sur Singh Wala.

Eighteen year old Hakam Singh, son of late Gurmej Singh alias Jeja and Gurmej Kaur, was a resident of village Dasuwal, post office Maneke, under Valtoha police station, in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. While he was a student in the ninth class at the Government High School, the police started raiding his house to arrest him because of his alleged links with militants. In order to avoid his arrest, Hakam Singh left home. For the next two years, the police detained his brothers and nephews.

Balkar’s and Hakam’s own ends came on 4 November 1990. That evening, the local station of the All India Radio broadcast a report about the killing of seven militants, including Balkar Singh and Hakam Singh, in an encounter near village Jand under Valtoha police station. The newspapers published the same report the next morning. The family members were unable to verify whether the reported encounter was real or rigged.

On 5 November 1990, the family members of those who had been killed gathered outside the Patti police station in whose compound the dead bodies had been collected before their cremation. The relatives were, however, not allowed to approach the bodies or to look at them. The police also prevented them from attending the cremations, which the police performed.

Jaswant Singh gave us the following list of people killed:

[1] Hakam Singh, s/o Gurmej Singh, resident of Dasuwal,
[2] Sukhdev Singh, s/o Balbir Singh, resident of Rasool Pur,
[3] Gulzar Singh, s/o Ajaib Singh, resident of Multan Bagh,
[4] Balkar Singh, s/o Karnail Singh, resident of Jor Singh Wala,
[5] Mukhtiar Singh, resident of Bundala, district Ferozepur, and
[6] Gora, resident of Kamala Bodla.

Gurmej Kaur also gave the name of the seventh person killed as Balkar Singh Mand, son of Hari Singh and resident of Jodh Singh Wala. The CBI’s list of identified cremations shows the cremations of the four out of these six. The cremations of Gora, resident of Kamala Bodla, and of Mukhtiar Singh, resident of Bundala in Ferozepur district are shown in the partially identified list, under Sl. Nos. 22/288 and 23/290. The postmortem reports are marked as MS-192/90 and MS-194/90. ')"

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