Under Sl. Nos. 114/361 and 115/362, the CBI’s List identifies the cremations of: [1] Gurinder Singh, s/o Dayal Singh Jat, r/o Balipur and [2] Jagtar Singh, s/o Sadha Singh Jat, r/ o Balipur on 28 March 1991. The cremations were carried out by SHO Major Singh of Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station under FIR No. 28/91. The postmortem reports are marked as MSJ 20/91 and MSJ 21/91. The cause of death is mentioned as “encounter”.

The Committee has the following information in these two cases from its Incident-Report Form Nos. CCDP/01440 and 01441. The main informants are Dial Singh and Santa Singh, the victims’ fathers.

Gurinder was the alias of Sawinder Singh, an 18-year-old boy from village Valipur, post office Palasaur under Tarn Taran city police station. He was unmarried and made his living as a tailor. He was a baptized Sikh and had no connection with any political or militant groups. The police had never arrested or interrogated Gurinder before his execution.

On the evening of 27 March 1991, around 7 p.m., Sawinder Singh and his cousin brother Jagtar Singh, s/o Santa Singh, an employee of Punjab State Electricity Board and a resident of the same village, were cycling down to village Kherai where some of their relatives lived. On the way, over a canal bridge on Mughal Chack-Kherai road, the army had set up a check post. As Sawinder and his cousin Jagtar crossed the bridge, a soldier from the check post opened fire, killing them instantly.

The watchmen of the neighboring villages were called to the spot to identify the dead bodies. The watchman of Valipur recognized Sawinder Singh and Jagtar Singh and informed their families about the incident. On 28 March 1991, parents of the boys went to Tarn Taran hospital where the bodies had been sent for postmortem. The police refused to hand over the bodies to the families, but allowed them to attend the cremations.

On 29 March 1991, Ajit carried a report on the encounter describing Sawinder Singh and Jagtar Singh as unidentified militants.

The father of Sawinder Singh, Dial Singh, suffered a brain hemorrhage following the incident that left him paralyzed.

Jagtar Singh, a lineman with the Punjab State Electricity Board, was posted at its sub-office at Manochahal. He was also a baptized Sikh and had no political or militant associations. He had no criminal record and had never been arrested. Jagtar Singh was married to Joginder Kaur and had a daughter.

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