Father and one brother were themselves officers of the Punjab police

Under Sl. Nos. 107/322, 108/324 and 109/325, the list identifies three cremations carried out on 24 January 1991 by SHO Surinder Singh of Valtoha police station and SI Raghubir Singh of Harike police station. SHO Surinder Singh cremated: [1] Rasool Singh, s/o Atma Singh, r/o Thathi Jaimal Singh under FIR No. 5/91. SI Raghubir Singh of Harike police station carried out two cremations under FIR No. 1/91. They are of: [1] Kashmir Singh, s/o Banta Singh, r/o village Khara and [2] Lakhwinder Singh alias Lakha, s/o Surinder Singh, r/o Kaler. The postmortem reports are marked as MS 17/91, MS 15/91 and MS 16/91. The cause of death in all three cases is given as “police encounter.” Although these cremations were carried out by two different police stations under separate FIR numbers, they are related cases and will be discussed together.

The Committee has the following information in the cases of Rasool Singh and Kashmir Singh through its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01591 and 01599. The main informants are Rasool Singh’s brother Sukhchain Singh Fauji and Kashmir Singh’s widow Sukhwinder Kaur.

The correct name of Rasool Singh is Rasal Singh, the 18-year old son of Atma Singh and Charan Kaur, resident of village Thathi Jaimal Singh Wali, post office Kalia Sakatteran under Valtoha police station in Patti subdivision of Amritsar district. While studying for High School, which he successfully finished, Rasal became acquainted and associated with persons involved in the underground militant movement. The police began to raid his house and detain his family members for interrogation under torture for information about his whereabouts. The family did not have this information. Rasal Singh’s fate became fatally tangled with the destiny of a man with a very diverse background. His name was Kashmir Singh.

Thirty-two year old Kashmir Singh, son of Banta Singh and Dhann Kaur, was a resident of village Khara, Patti Jhandu Ki under Sarhalli Kalan police station in Tarn Taran subdivision of Amritsar district. He was a farmer married to Sukhwinder Kaur, with two daughters and a son.

Kashmir Singh’s father Banta Singh was an officer of the Punjab police who retired from the service in January 1992. One of his three brothers was also a policeman. In 1988, the youngest of the four brothers Balkar Singh, who had just passed his Higher Secondary School examination, was abducted by SHO Darshan Singh Mann of Sarhalli Kalan police station, along with Gurbhej Singh, s/o Joginder Singh of the same village. The police probably suspected that they were involved with the armed underground. Banta Singh met SHO Darshan Singh Mann who promised to release Balkar Singh unharmed after completing the investigation about his involvements. The SHO requested Banta Singh’s confidence that his department would take care of his son. Inspite of these promises, both Balkar Singh and Gurbhej Singh disappeared. Balkar’s mother Dhann Kaur was unable to cope with the tragedy and died under trauma.

These events had a harrowing impact on Kashmir Singh who deciding to join the militant movement and left his house. The police started persecuting his family members, in their usual ways, inspite of the fact that his father and one brother were themselves officers of the Punjab police. But Kashmir Singh’s end was very near. On 23 January 1991, Kashmir Singh and two of his associates Rasal Singh of Thathi Jaimal Singh village and Lakhwinder Singh of Kaler village were encircled by a joint force from Valtoha and Harike police stations, between Lakhna and Kot Data villages, and shot dead in an exchange of fire that lasted several hours. The next day, the police carried out the cremations and also permitted the family members to attend, under pressure from hundreds of people from the surrounding villages who reached Patti to express sympathy for the slain militants.

The tragedy of Kashmir Singh’s family did not end with his death. On 29 April 1992, some unidentified gunmen came to the house and shot dead both Banta Singh and his son Gulzar Singh. The killers managed to escape and were never arrested, but the Valtoha police attributed the murders to internecine rivalry among militant groups. Banta Singh’s only surviving son, who prefers to remain anonymous, is still with the Punjab police.

Kashmir Singh’s widow Sukhwinder Kaur now lives, along with her children, at her parents’ house in village Sabhran. ')"

wooden houses