AMRITSAR Executive committee of the largest Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Tuesday passed a resolution to strongly condemn the killing of three Punjabi Sikh youths in a fake Police encounter in Pilibhit district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. 

In the meeting which was chaired by the president Harjinder Singh Dhami and held at the head office of the SGPC, the resolution demanded a judicial inquiry into the entire matter. In the resolution, serious questions were raised on it. The resolution said that this is a very serious matter and it seems like a deliberate act to target youths of Punjab.

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. 

Indian Police forces on December 23 gunned down these youths linking them to the alleged explosions heard by the locals around Police posts.

As per the reliable sources, these three youths were already in custody of Police. Almost all of them 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. 

Tall claims of the Police were exposed by the pictures of these youths published in the newspapers. These pictures were released by the Police to the Indian news agency, Asian News International (ANI), which further circulated them to different media groups. 

Dress of the victims in their mugshots was the same as that of their dead bodies. Their hairstyle and beard style were also the same on both kinds of pictures. The question arises if they are killed in a real encounter, how the Police clicked their pictures in which they are seen alive. Thus, this encounter is under the questions and Police are mum on the questions being raised on it. 

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

So, the Sikh bodies are worried over these killings because the community has already lost thousands of their innocent youths to the extra-judicial killings in 90s. 

On Monday, Jailed Khadoor Sahib MP and pro-freedom Sikh leader Amritpal Singh’s father Tarsem Singh and other Sikh activists met the grieving families and said that they would fight to get justice in this case. 

Tarsem Singh, Faridkot MP Sarabjit Singh Khalsa and their supporters are organizing an ‘antim ardas’ function of three youths. The function will be held in a gurdwara at Kalanaur to which all the deceased belonged. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, wife of human rights activist Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra, is also making a presence on the occasion.