AAP party Member of Parliament Dr Dharamvir Gandhi takes up the case of 4 Sikh youth extrajudicially killed in 1986 at Nakodar, near Jalandhar, Punjab, with the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh who promised to promptly write to Punjab government for release Justice Gurnam Singh Report and legal proceedings based on it.

Dharamvir Gandhi, the AAP party Member of Indian Parliament from Patiala constituency took up the 32-year-old case of extrajudicial execution of 4 Sikh youth from Nakodar with Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and sought the release of Justice Gurnam Singh Report submitted to the Punjab government on 31 October 1986. Dr Gandhi presented his request in person to the Home Minister in Delhi today. 

Speaking to the World Sikh News on the phone line from Delhi, Dr Gandhi pointed out that though this was to be taken in Parliament, as the winter session was not working there was no choice but to take this up with the Home Minister in person. He said that “I told the Home Minister that incidents like Behbal Kalan and Bargari have happened earlier too and that the guilty police officers have not been brought to book in the Nakodar killings, which happened 32 years back.” He told this correspondent that Home Minister Rajnath Singh promised to immediately write to the Punjab government to make the Justice Gurnam Singh Report public and to initiate proceedings against the guilty officers and police personnel directly involved in the killings of the Sikh youth.

This case was earlier taken up by AAP MLA Harvinder Singh Phoolka and journalist-turned politician and MLA Kanwar Sandhu in the last session of the Punjab Assembly in October this year and there was a demand for the release of the two-volume Commission of Inquiry report.

“Justice Gurnam Singh inquiry described the Nakodar killings as “avoidable and unjustified and “aimed to kill.”

Kanwar Sandhu who as a journalist has had the opportunity to look at the report, though unofficially, had then filed a story in the Tribune which narrated that the Justice Gurnam Singh inquiry described the Nakodar killings as “avoidable and unjustified and “aimed to kill.”

Kanwar Sandhu has also written to the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh seeking release of the report but the Punjab government has not responded in any manner.

32 years ago, in February 1986, four young Sikhs from the sleepy town of Nakokar in Jalandhar district of Punjab literally ran out of their houses to participate in a protest march organised by the All India Sikh Students Federation against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in a local Gurdwara by mysterious unknown elements whose clear intention was to malign the Sikhs and denigrate the Sikh religion and hurt the feelings and sentiments of the Sikhs. Due to the clear complicity of police higher ups and the state machinery the names of those who burnt the 5 Sarups of Guru Granth Sahib were never disclosed nor was a serious investigation done into this.

These four young Sikhs -Ravinder Singh Littran, Baldhir Singh Ramgarh, Jhilman Singh Gorsian, and Harminder Singh Chluper, were shot in cold blood and killed. Harminder Singh Chluper was shot while in custody. Succumbing to the pressure of the Sikh Sangat and the families of the victims, the government of Punjab constituted the Justice Gurnam Singh Commission to investigate the incident of sacrilege, the killings of the Sikh youth and their unceremonious and rushed cremation without proper rites and without the presence of the parents.

Ravinder Singh Littran’s father Baldev Singh while talking to World Sikh News said, “32 years is a long period. We have tried all avenues but to no avail. I thank Dr. Gandhi has taken this up at the highest level with the government of India. We anxiously await the response by the Punjab government to this plea and that of legislators Kanwar Sandhu and Harvinder Singh Phoolka.”

“I will not rest till justice is done.” said Baldev Singh.