ON DEATH ROW: Piara Singh, Gurdev Singh, Satnam Singh and Sarbjit Singh were given death penalties for killing 17 attending a marriage party in a village in Amritsar in 1991Angrej Singh, 35, shudders as he goes back to that November night in 1991 when Piara Singh, his two sons and a relative, showered bullets on his marriage party, killing 17 persons, including a pregnant woman.Angrej managed to save his life by hiding in a pile of wood but his family was not so fortunate. ‘‘I lost my father, both my brothers, two uncles, two aunts, cousins, neighbours. there was blood everywhere as they continued to fire for over 10 minutes and then left shouting with glee.’’The dead included Angrej’s eight-month-pregnant aunt Sukhwinder Kaur and three cousins, all below 14 years of age. They had all gathered at Angrej’s house on the eve of his wedding when Piara Singh decided to take revenge for an old grudge carried over from the militancy days.Fourteen years have passed and Piara, his sons and nephew were sentenced to death in 2002.Today, Angrej bursts into tears when told about the proposed Presidential pardon. ‘‘How can you justify the killing of 17 persons? What about our long fight for justice?’’ asks his aunt Balwinder Kaur, who lost her husband and teenaged daughter in the massacre. ‘‘I hid beneath dead bodies to save myself and my son Jatinder,’’ she says. ‘Will speak in House’
