Terror in Terai

THIS was a case in which many say the Uttar Police was completely off target. On July 13, 1991, the state police killed 10 Sikhs in three se...

THIS was a case in which many say the Uttar Police was completely off target. On July 13, 1991, the state police killed 10 Sikhs in three separate incidents in the jungles of Pilibhit district in what was UP then but now falls under Uttaranchal.

Thirteen years after the killings, the trial of 55 policemen, including seven PAC personnel, is pending in the CBI court in Lucknow. The last hearing was held in August this year. The policemen8212;all constables8212;are posted with different thanas across the state.

The incident took place at a time when terrorism shadowed Punjab. The UP police says it acted on a tip off.

The ten Sikhs were killed at Neuria, Amarai and Puranpur in the jungles of Pilibhit in the Terai8212;a region where Sikhs have a large presence.

According to the police, those were the years when militants practically ran a parallel administration in the Terai. Says R D Tripathi, who was then SP of Pilibhit: 8216;8216;The district magistrate and the SP would frequently change the number plates on their cars to avoid detection by terrorists. After dusk, all thanas would be locked and sentries would be posted at their rooftops.8217;8217;

THE killings, however, did not go unheeded. Protests by various human rights organisations and Sikh associations shook the Kalyan Singh led-BJP government in the state that had just assumed office on June 24, 1991.

These groups alleged the police had staged a fake encounter and those killed were 8216;innocent8217; Sikh pilgrims returning from Gurdwara Patna Sahib in Nashik.

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Tripathi, who retired last year as IG, denied that those killed were innocents but admitted that they were returning from Patna Sahib. 8216;8216;The police had definite information from a granthi in Nanak Matha gurdwara in the neighbouring Nainital district that members of militant outfits were travelling in the region.8217;8217;

According to police records, among the slain 8216;ultras8217; was Baljit Singh alias Pappu, a self-styled Lt Gen of Khalistan Liberation Army. All the men killed belonged to Gurdaspur and Batala districts of Punjab. According to the police, 10 to 15 individual cases of criminal and terrorist activities were registered against these men in three districts.

	nbsp;CASE FILE
	FATAL ENCOUNTER 8226; Trial of 55 policemen is pending in a CBI court in Lucknow 8226; In 1993, the Kuldeep Singh Commission report had not only exonerated the police but also lauded its role in combating terrorism 8226; Following a writ petition, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation

THE police version was not accepted unanimously. Following more protests, Kalyan Singh appointed a one-man inquiry commission headed by Kuldeep Singh, a retired judge of Allahabad High Court. The constitution of the probe panel was followed by a PIL filed by an advocate in the Supreme Court. A writ petition was also filed in the High Court. Finally, a CBI inquiry was ordered by the apex court.

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The Kuldeep Singh commission, which submitted its report to the government in 1993, not only gave a clean chit to the police, it even commended its role in containing terrorism and observed that they should be rewarded.But the court is yet pass its verdict.