With a deep sense of be­ing cheated by the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship and the ju­di­ciary, Baldev Singh, fa­ther of Ravin­der Singh Lit­tran -one of the four Sikh youth killed ex­tra­ju­di­cially for protest­ing against sac­ri­lege of Guru Granth Sahib in 1986, in what has come to known as Saka Nako­dar, writes a poignant and pow­er­ful Open Let­ter to Chief Min­is­ter of Pun­jab -Bhag­want Singh Mann, who had promised jus­tice to the four fam­i­lies dur­ing his elec­tion cam­paign. Promises were made to the fam­ily by the for­mer CM Pun­jab Capt. Amarinder Singh and for­mer MP San­tokh Singh Choud­hary. The mis­sive is a clar­ion call for jus­tice, a stark re­minder of the un­re­solved and painful saga.
Through this emo­tional and de­ter­mined plea, Baldev Singh not only re­counts the heart­break­ing de­tails of this gross hu­man rights vi­o­la­tion but also chal­lenges the ech­e­lons of power to up­hold truth and jus­tice. Ex­press­ing agony and hope, Baldev Singh and Baldip Kaur -the par­ents of Ravin­der Singh Lit­tran wrote to the Pres­i­dent of In­dia on March 11, 2020, which was for­warded to the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment on No­vem­ber 23, 2020. To­day they ask, “How long should we wait or will we die with­out jus­tice for our son?” Sadly, no­body has any an­swers.
Baldev Singh is not hope­ful for jus­tice yet de­ter­mined to con­tinue the fight. The World Sikh News shares the full let­ter with the hope that it will res­onate with you and am­plify the call for jus­tice that has been de­nied for far too long. Like the fa­ther, we too have lit­tle ex­pec­ta­tion of the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment mov­ing an inch fur­ther in this di­rec­tion. WSN also shares var­i­ous promises and odd­i­ties in the case for a com­pre­hen­sive un­der­stand­ing of the sin­is­ter state mech­a­nism to push jus­tice out of the do­main of the vic­tim fam­i­lies and the Sikh com­mu­nity at large.

Dear Chief Min­is­ter Mr. Bhag­want Singh Mann Wa­he­guru Ji Ka Khalsa! Wa­he­guru Ji Ki Fateh!!  I write to you with a heavy heart and a bur­dened soul, as we mark the 75th In­ter­na­tional Hu­man Rights Day. While the world takes stock of the hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion world­wide, our world -our fam­ily sits back to re­flect upon the last four decades of strug­gle to get jus­tice for our son and three of his as­so­ci­ates killed ex­tra­ju­di­cially.

While the world’s su­per pow­er­ful coun­tries, in­ter­na­tional me­dia, and the Sikh Di­as­pora dis­cuss transna­tional killings, it is im­per­a­tive to look back to how these ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings started and how im­punity to the uni­formed killers has led In­dia to the pre­sent sit­u­a­tion where it has to face ig­nominy for its re­course to ques­tion­able meth­ods to si­lence Sikhs who are by na­ture dis­senters and who stand for Sar­bat da Bhala and Jus­tice for All.

It is with deep an­guish and dis­ap­point­ment that I bring to your at­ten­tion the lin­ger­ing shadow of in­jus­tice that has marred our state for far too long. The Saka Nako­dar in­ci­dent of 1986, a dark blot on the his­tory of Pun­jab, re­mains un­re­solved and un­ad­dressed even af­ter 38 long years. On the fate­ful day of Feb­ru­ary 4, 1986, four in­no­cent Sikh youths – Ravin­der Singh, Har­min­der Singh, Bald­hir Singh, and Jhilman Singh – were bru­tally killed by the Pun­jab Po­lice and In­dian Se­cu­rity Forces.

On Feb­ru­ary 4, 1986, Ravin­der Singh, Har­min­der Singh, Bald­hir Singh, and Jhilman Singh – were bru­tally killed by the Pun­jab Po­lice and In­dian Se­cu­rity Forces, while they were peace­fully protest­ing against des­e­cra­tion of Guru Granth Sahib in a march to Gur­d­wara Guru
Ar­jan Sahib, Nako­dar.

They were part of a peace­ful march to the Gur­d­wara Guru Ar­jan Sahib Nako­dar, in­tend­ing to col­lect the des­e­crated Sa­roops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Their un­just demise has left an in­deli­ble scar on the con­science of our state, and yet, the wheels of jus­tice have failed to turn for them.

I im­plore you, as the Chief Min­is­ter of Pun­jab, to rec­og­nize the grav­ity of this hu­man rights vi­o­la­tion. Time is slip­ping away from us, as only one of the be­reaved par­ents of these four stu­dents is still alive, cling­ing to the hope of see­ing jus­tice in their life­time. Their heart-wrench­ing plight de­mands not just our em­pa­thy but im­me­di­ate and de­ci­sive ac­tion.

The re­cent de­vel­op­ments in the Pun­jab & Haryana High Court and the sub­se­quent ac­tions of the state ma­chin­ery have only added to the agony. The mis­placed Part 2 of Jus­tice Gur­nam Singh Com­mis­sion’s Ju­di­cial In­quiry Re­port and the un­re­spon­sive at­ti­tude of the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tion Team (SIT) ap­pointed by SSP Ja­land­har are glar­ing ex­am­ples of the ap­a­thy and ne­glect this case has suf­fered

TRAV­ESTY OF JUS­TICE: “Learned State coun­sel on in­struc­tions from Sukh­pal Singh, DSP, Sub Di­vi­sion Nako­dar, Dis­trict Ja­land­har (Rural), In­spec­tor Sat­pal Singh Sidhu, SHO, Po­lice Sta­tion City Nako­dar sub­mits that part of in­quiry re­port was mis­placed. He fur­ther sub­mits that act­ing upon the rep­re­sen­ta­tion made by the pe­ti­tioner, SIT has been con­sti­tuted. He fur­ther sub­mits that four FIRs re­lat­ing to the in­ci­dent were reg­is­tered.” NO­TABLY, THE JUDGE AC­CEPTS THE SUB­MIS­SION OF THE STATE
VER­BA­TIM AND PASSES THE OR­DER. 

Judge Avneesh Jhin­gan, Pun­jab and Haryana High Court

In light of these dis­turb­ing rev­e­la­tions and the pro­longed de­lay in de­liv­er­ing jus­tice, I urge you to take suo moto cog­nizance of this mat­ter. We seek the im­me­di­ate an­nounce­ment of a high-level in­de­pen­dent en­quiry into this in­ci­dent. This en­quiry must be con­ducted with the ut­most in­tegrity, trans­parency, and swift­ness, to un­ravel the truth and bring the per­pe­tra­tors to book.

WHERE IS THE EN­QUIRY RE­PORT? As per di­rec­tions of the High Court, the SSP Ja­land­har Rural con­sti­tuted the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tion Team com­pris­ing SP In­ves­ti­ga­tion Ja­land­har Rural, SP Po­lice Sta­tion Ja­land­har Rural, and SHO Po­lice Sta­tion, Ja­land­har Rural to file a re­port within one month of his or­der dated 1 June 2023.

Your gov­ern­ment, which came to power with the promise of change and right­eous­ness, now stands at a crit­i­cal junc­ture. The eyes of the world, the peo­ple of Pun­jab, and the souls of those un­justly taken from us are watch­ing. Let this mo­ment be the turn­ing point where jus­tice pre­vails, where the long-stand­ing wounds of the past be­gin to heal, and where the rule of law up­holds the sanc­tity of hu­man life and dig­nity.

Our re­solve is un­shake­able, and our com­mit­ment to jus­tice is un­wa­ver­ing, as we stand against the shad­ows of in­jus­tice that have loomed over us for far too long. 

Baldev Singh, fa­ther of Ravin­der Singh Lit­tran

In the un­for­tu­nate event that the state and the In­dian ju­di­ciary con­tinue to fal­ter in their duty to de­liver jus­tice in this egre­gious vi­o­la­tion of hu­man rights, we are pre­pared to es­ca­late our pur­suit of jus­tice to the in­ter­na­tional stage. We will not hes­i­tate to seek the in­ter­ven­tion of United Na­tions fo­rums and other global hu­man rights or­ga­ni­za­tions. This step will en­sure that the voices of the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies are heard and that ac­count­abil­ity is en­forced on an in­ter­na­tional scale.

Our re­solve is un­shake­able, and our com­mit­ment to jus­tice is un­wa­ver­ing, as we stand against the shad­ows of in­jus­tice that have loomed over us for far too long. We await your prompt and just ac­tion in this mat­ter. Let your gov­ern­ment also take some no­ble steps to cel­e­brate 75th Hu­man Rights Day and not fail those who still look up with hope for jus­tice.

With earnest ap­peal,

Baldev Singh
fa­ther of Ravin­der Singh Litran
VPO Lit­tran, Ja­land­har, Pun­jab