Bloodbath of a Sikh Family

This is the story of Mata Tarnaam Kaur and her family. It has been more than a decade since her family members have disappeared but tears of grievance have not disappeared from her eyes. The Indian government had given the full authority to the police to kill as many Sikhs as possible. Following the order the police eliminated thousands of Sikh families one of which is of Mata Tarnaam Kaur. Her husband, one son, and five grandsons were killed by the police. Tarnaam Kaur was married to Bhai Sadhu Singh and together they had four sons: Inder Singh, Khzan Singh, Sajjan Singh and Gurdeep Singh. All four sons were married and had kids some of which were young, teenagers and adults. The entire family was very religious but had no connection with the Sikh freedom movement. They had never attended any Sikh convention or took part in ceremony in the remembrance of Sikh martyrs. Even then they couldn’t escape the brutality of the Indian police that was hunting down Sikhs from village to village regardless of their ideology about the Sikh movement.

On the night of 29 October, 1991 the Indian police lead by D.S.P. Baldev Seikhon raided their house at about five in the morning. Some of the family members were captured from the fields and some were sleeping in the house. From a large family the police picked out seven members and took them away. The family members were:

Bhai Sadhu Singh (85 years)	Bhai Gurdeep Singh (42 years)	Son of Bhai Gurdeep Singh, Amanjeet Singh (17 years)	Son of Bhai Inder Singh, Hardev Singh (22 years)
Son of Bhai Khzan Singh, Davinder Singh (22 years)	Son of Bhai Khzan Singh, Sukhdev Singh (17 years)	Son of Bhai Sajjan Singh, Sharanjeet Singh (13 years)

Davinder Singh was happily married and had two daughters. The youngest daughter was 8 days old at that time.

Baldev Seikhon threw them all in the police vehicle and yelled at the remaining family members, “Unless my brother returns by evening, I will kill them all and then come after you.” No one in the family understood what D.S.P. Baldev meant. Later on the family found out the real story. D.S.P. Baldev’s younger brother Kuldeep Guglee had been working as a Cat in the group of Bhai Seetal Singh Mattewal. Baldev had promised his brother to hire him as an Inspector in the police if he managed to turn in Bhai Seetal Singh. After few days, Bhai Seetal Singh was surrounded by the police forces and after 36 hours of fighting Bhai Sahib became Shaheed. Bhai Sahib’s whereabouts were told by Kuldeep Guglee. When Bhai Seetal Singh’s companions found out the truth, they picked up Kuldeep and took him away to punish him. D.S.P. Baldev was blaming this innocent family for the disappearance of his brother. Baldev’s relatives lived in the same village who did not like Tarnaam Kaur’s family. For these reasons he picked up seven family members and all of them were male. Baldev had no valid reasons or evidence to prove the family guilty but it clearly shows how the Indian police was doing its job in wiping out the Sikh generation.

After the police left, the family members contacted many officials to find out the whereabouts of those who were taken away. They searched every police station in the neighboring areas but could not find them. After 10 days some policemen informed them that their family members were being held at the police station of Kalanaur. The family went to the police station and took some policemen with them. Upon meeting them it was apparent that they had been tortured viciously and were unable to walk. After 10 days they again went back to meet them. Seeing the horrible conditions they were in Bhai Inder Singh couldn’t hold his grief and started to cry. 13 years old Sharanjeet Singh consoled him by saying “We have done nothing wrong. They can’t keep us here forever. One day they will have to release us.” After the meeting the family members returned to their village.

The last meeting between the family members took place in the police station of Kahnoowal. When the D.S.P. found out about the meeting he angrily yelled at every police official and ordered to move the family members to a different police station. After that, no one could find out where they were being kept. The family contacted every government official they knew but no one listened to them. Sawaran Singh, son of Inder Singh, himself was in the police but even he couldn’t find his family members. One time he saw them in a police jeep near Bus Stand of Amritsar and did his best to find them but he failed to do so. Later on, they found out that four of their family members were killed in a fake encounter near Gagrewal village and the other three were killed in the fields in Kahnoowan.

Taken from Indian Terrorism on the land of Punjab by Baljit Singh Khalsa

Translated by SikhFreedom.com