Bhai Hira Singh

There is the tragic case of Hira Singh (21) of Kila Lal Singh village, P.S. Sadar Batala, Distt. Gurdaspur- we visited his home and met his mother Jagir Kaur.  It was one of the most moving moments during our tour of Punjab; remembering that the last wish of her son to meet her once was not allowed and he was killed before she could see him, she burst into uncontrollable tears.  Jagir Kaur never had much happiness, her husband Sulakhan Singh, an opium addict, used to beat her and there used to be constant quarrels; Hira Singh used to resent this even when small; his father had 4 acres of land which his neighbor Sohan Singh, a landlord and son-in-law of Congress-I M.P. (ex) Teja Singh Akapuri wanted to grab used to supply opium to Sulakhan Singh to hasten his end.  When Hira Singh came of age there was a fight between the father and son in which Sulakhan Singh died and Hira Singh was accused of murder under section 304 (IPC) but later was acquitted; this was not liked by Sohan Singh and conniving with the police he began to harass this boy daily - so much so Hira Singh had to leave his village and seek shelter in the Golden Temple. 

During his absence the police got him involved in a number of untraceable crimes.  Then came Operation Blue Star and on June 4 an old friend of Hira Singh, on Panthjit Singh of village Goharpur came to the Golden Temple only to be killed during the Army action.  Seeing that his friend had been killed, Hira Singh decided to change his own name to Panthjit Singh so that in future as Panthjit Singh he would escape police harassment.  He believed that they would assume that Hira Singh was one of those killed in the Army action.  But things did not work out that way.  The army prepared a list of arrested men before sending them to Gurdaspur jail and gave the list to the police for informing relatives.  Getting the information Panthjit Singh's parents came to meet their son but found Hira Singh instead.  Things moved fast after that and the police took him to the CIA staff Batala, tortured him there for two days when the SGPC Secretary of the Local Unit, Batala, went to see him in the jail he was near death.

HABEAS CORPUS

"Hearing of this on July,3, I applied for Habeas Corpus through Gurdaspur Court apprehending that my son would be killed either in a fake encounter or otherwise because Sohan Singh and Mohinder Singh had gone and seen the police.  For 3 days I went to Gurdaspur Jail to meet him and failed, not knowing that my son had meanwhile been whisked away to CIA Staff, Batala.

"But I did not know at that time, which I learnt later from a friend with access to police sources that Hira Singh was going to be killed on the same night of July 3.

"I also heard later that when asked about the last wish, my son said - 'I want to meet my mother.'

"And so he was then brought at 2:30 a.m. to the village, but not to meet me, but to be killed in a false encounter by the side of nearby UPDC Canal.  According to the postmortem report he was shot through the brain and the abdomen.  The police story as published in the Punjab Keshari and Ajit of July 5, 1985, was that two extremist were running away on their cycles when the police chased them.  One had a pistol.  One man escaped and the other who was killed was Hira Singh.

"On July 5, the Military and Police did not permit any of my friends and neighbors to come for the cremation in our village.  Only my second son (Dalbir Singh), my daughter (Daljit Kaur) and I were permitted.  For two months my house was cordoned off by the police and nobody was allowed to come.  But the Military Police came from Batala a month after the cremation and took my younger son Dalbir aged 15-years, beating him severely all the way to the bank of the same canal where Hira Singh had been shot.  In spite of the terror of the police and the military, some village ladies including my daughter and sister presented themselves before the military and asked to be shot firs before Dalbir was killed.  Thus he was saved.

"Sohan Singh is still after Dalbir.  He accused him of keeping a revolver, but the police had failed to find any.  So no case has been yet started.

"I am living in poverty because the land had already been mortgaged by my husband.  Hira Singh was the only earning member of the family, and used to feed us by working as laborer on other people's land."

Today it is Hira Singh, tomorrow Dalbir; the day after another this accumulated suffering will not remain confined to individual hearts but will grow into an all-consuming fire.  The Army and the Police while jointly indulging in this favorite pastime of torturing and killing innocent people are actively fanning that flame to grow.