What name comes to your mind when you read the nomenclature ‘The Butcher of Punjab’? From time immemorial, through its chequered history of rebellion and self-rule, the Punjab has seen many oppressive killers but very few were given the moniker “the butcher of Punjab”. This one is from contemporary Punjab, who was convicted for outraging the modesty of a colleague and who granted full impunity to his police officers and to his recruits –the Special police officers to rape, maim, torture and kill Sikh insurgents in the eighties and nineties of the last century.

The Butcher of Punjab is K. P. S. Gill. The early nineteenth century saw General Dyer as the Butcher of Punjab who carried out the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, whereas K P S Gill converted every district of the Punjab into a Jallianwala Bagh.

Young Dal Khalsa leader Sarabjit Singh Ghuman, who has been chronicling in detail the deeds of Punjab police officers who killed Sikh youth with impunity in the decades gone by, has in a 352 page Punjabi book profiled the life and extraordinary misdeeds of KPS Gill in his new book -The Butcher of Punjab.

Giani Jagtar Singh -the Head Granthi –the chief priest of the prime seat of Sikh religion –Darbar Sahib, popularly known as The Golden Temple released the book –The Butcher of Punjab by presenting a copy to Paramjit Kaur Khalra – wife of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra who disappeared involuntarily on orders of the butcher of Punjab through the then Senior Superintendent of Police of Tarn Taran, S S Sandhu.  The second copy was given as a mark of respect to Beant Singh, the brother of General Subheg Singh, who with Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale defended and attained martyrdom during the army assault on Darbar Sahib in June 1984.

Present at the release ceremony at Akal Takht Sahib, Dal Khalsa leader Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib commented that “Gill was a symbol of state terrorism. He enjoyed full impunity from the political establishment from Delhi to Chandigarh.”

“He may be the darling of the Indian leaders and the majority community of the country, he is undoubtedly the Butcher of Punjab for the Sikhs and his terror will always be remembered and chronicled in even more detail in future, said Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwarpal Singh.

Significantly, the book has the “List of Small Butchers’ –the police officers responsible for gross human rights violations that were reverted from their high ranks and some who are in prison and many still on bail or under protection of the state.

The chapters on the involuntary enforced disappearance of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, former Jathedar of Akal Takht –Bhai Gurdev Singh Kaonke would make difficult and painful reading, but read we must to know how blatantly these stalwarts of the Sikh world were killed with no trace of them, even till today.

India has been fed with lies and half-truths to eulogize and extol Gill’s inhuman killings and torture as “necessary” to crush insurgency in the Punjab. He was called the ‘super-cop’ by Indian columnists, who went hammer and tongs to build him as the saviour of Punjab. Gill himself, never regretted any of his misdeeds and always commended the illegal and unlawful extrajudicial methods of ‘the Gill boys.’ He started the pernicious trend of killing not only the insurgents but the wholesale harassment and torture of family members and those who expressed public sympathy with the movement.

Speaking to World Sikh News, the young activist, who has gone through the works of the Punjab police, said that “his was a humble attempt to put the truth of Gill’s contribution in the right perspective and as this person had spilled the blood of so many young Sikhs, it was appropriate to call him, The Butcher of Punjab.”

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Will this book serve as a caution to the new breed of police personnel in Punjab and India? Will the political godfathers stop building and patronising such butchers?  Too early to say!