CHANDIGARH In another case of grave human rights violation of minority nations, Indian Police forces on Monday gunned down three Sikh youths from Gurdaspur district of Punjab in an encounter which is said to be a fake encounter, at Pilibhit in Indian province of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in connection with the alleged explosions heard by the locals around Police posts. 

In an attempt to pave the way for a crackdown on pro-freedom Sikh sections in Punjab, the Police of India-administered Punjab links the deceased to the ISI, intelligence agency of Pakistan, and called them members of “terror module”. 

In a statement, Punjab Police DGP Gaurav Yadav said, “In a major breakthrough against Pakistan-ISI’s sponsored Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) terror module, a joint operation of Punjab Police and Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police has led to an encounter with three module members involved in grenade attack at Police establishment in Gurdaspur”. 

“The encounter has taken place in the jurisdiction of Police Station Puranpur in Pilibhit, UP between the joint police teams of Pilibhit and Punjab after three module members opened fire at the police party”, the statement reads.

It further reads, “The development came in less than week after some unknown persons hurled a hand grenade at Bakshiwala Police Post under the jurisdiction of Kalanaur Police Station in Gurdaspur on December 18, 2024. Pertinently, terrorist organisation KZF had used social media platforms to claim the responsibility for this act of terror”.

Victims of the fake encounter are Varinder Singh alias Ravi of Agwan village, Gurwinder Singh of Kalanaur and Jashanpreet Singh of Shur Khurd village. These villages fall in Gurdaspur district.  Police have also claimed that they have recovered two AK-47 rifles and two 9MM Glock pistols from their possession. 

The statement further claims, “UK based Jagjeet Singh, reported to be working in the British Army, is the mastermind of the attacks”.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Border Range Satinder Singh said in the statement that the youths fled to UP and took shelter somewhere. “Police teams had successfully traced the accused persons and when confronted they opened fire at the police teams, prompting police parties to retaliate, ” he said, while adding that during the exchange of fire trio accused persons had sustained bullet injuries”.

Indian mainstream media published and broadcast this statement and claims of the police without verifying the facts. 

As per the reliable sources, these three youths were already in custody of Police. Almost all left the house a week ago. Since then, their families have not been able to establish contact with them. Their phones have remained switched off. Had they been not in the Police custody, they would have conversation with the families. 

Many other questions arise on the claims of the Police. 

For the last many days, blast-like sounds had been heard near the Police stations and Police posts in Punjab, especially in its border districts of Amritsar and Gurdaspur. However, nothing was damaged at these establishments of Police, nor was anyone injured. The local people just heard the sound of explosions. When they rushed outside, they found nothing. 

When this kind of incident took place at Islamabad Police Station in Amritsar a week ago, local Police officials ruled out any blast or grenade attack. Even Amritsar Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar was not clear what exactly happened there as there was no substantial evidence of any such attack. Indirectly, he ruled out any blast and said investigation had been initiated. 

However, when DGP Gaurav Yadav visited Amritsar the same day, he issued a statement claiming that it was a grenade attack. However, he could not produce any evidence. 

Difference in the statements of both the officers reveals that such conspiracy was hatched at high level. Lower rank officers were not aware of the conspiracy. 

After that back to back similar incidents happened in Bakshiwal and Wadala Bangar Police posts of Gurdwara district. The Police vacated these posts few days ago. Similar sound was heard by the locals, but nothing was found when enquired. 

In other words, these incidents occurred under mysterious circumstances. The Police failed to clear the air on these occurrences. However, top brass of the Punjab Police started linking these incidents to Sikhs. 

Now, we will look at the backgrounds of the victims of the extra-judicial killings. Many questions arise on the story of the Police after learning about their background. 

All these youths belonged to poor families. One youth was purely illiterate. Nor have they any background of violent activities. 

25-year-old Gurwinder Singh’s family has been living at Kalanaur town in a rented house. Suffering from poverty, the family sold out their house in the village and shifted the residence to Kalanaur town. 

21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh got married just three months ago. “My son left the house seven days ago saying that he was to earn money by driving a commercial vehicle. After that we had no conversation over the phone which has been switched off”, said his mother Paramjit Kaur.

She said, “We cannot believe that he was involved in any criminal activity. He, like my other two sons, is illiterate. He cannot do anything wrong. Our family has been facing poverty since beginning”. 

His wife Gurpreet Kaur said, “Story being told by the Police is a blatant lie. My husband went with a commercial vehicle. Now, we want justice”. 

House of the third deceased was locked at village Agwan. By seeing the condition of the house, it appeared that the financial condition of Varinder Singh’s family was not good.

As per the information divulged by the villagers, he rarely stayed at home and was driver of truck and his brother also worked with him. 

Gurwinder was the lone progeny of his parents. His mother said they have been searching for Gurwinder Singh for the last six days, but to no avail. 

“Before leaving the house, he went to drop my son-in-law to Batala but did not return”, she said. 

His father Gurdev Singh is a labourer. 

As the families explained, all these youths never linked to any group indulging in violent activities. In a week, they could not be trained to be able to have an encounter with highly trained Police personnel. They were ordinary people who left the house a week ago. If they tried to flee, they could be apprehended easily without opening any fire. However, as mentioned above, they already were in the custody of the Police. For their fake encounter, a place in UP was chosen because it is ruled by BJP. Staging such encounters in Punjab would not be easy for intelligence agencies of India. 

Thousands of Sikh youths have already been massacred in the fake encounters on the pretext of countering insurgency in Punjab. Many of them were subjected to enforced disappearances. For taking the truth on global platforms, noted human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra had to sacrifice his life in 1995. 

Day of this fake encounter clashes with the day of judgment of a 32-year-old fake encounter case involving the murder of two men. 

On Monday, aA special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court found three former Punjab Police officers guilty in this fake encounter case. The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on Tuesday.

Special CBI Judge Rakesh Gupta held former assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Gurbachan Singh guilty under sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping), 343 (wrongful confinement of three or more days) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save person from punishment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), former inspector Resham Singh under section 302 and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 218 and sub inspector Hans Raj under sections 120-B and 218 of the IPC.

The case was investigated by the CBI following the orders issued by the Supreme Court on November 15, 1995.