CHANDIGARH: Justice Gurnam Singh commission report, which probed into the killing of four Sikh youths protesting against sacrilege of birs in Nakodar in 1986, has indicted Punjab police officers. The report, which was not made public by the Punjab government for the last 32 years, says then SP (operations) did not seek mandatory permission from the district magistrate, sitting hardly at a distance of 1 kilometer, before resorting to firing at the mob.The commission had completed the probe into the February 4, 1986, police firing incident at Sherpur bridge in Nakodar ( Jalandhar ) on October 31, 1986, and submitted the report to then Shiromani Akali Dal government headed by chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala.Ravinder Singh, Jhalman Singh, Baldhir Singh and Harminder Singh had died in the police firing and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had put up their pictures at the Sikh museum in Amritsar a few years ago.The commission in its report, a copy of which is with TOI, found that then SP (operations) A K Sharma, who was heading the police force, did not seek mandatory permission from district magistrate Darbara Singh Guru before resorting to firing at the mob. “The order that effective firing should be on the lower part of the body was totally ignored and it appears that the four persons who died were aimed (hit) at the vital parts of their bodies so as to kill them,” concludes the panel report.After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) raised the issue in the Punjab assembly’s ongoing budget session to make the report public, speaker Rana K P Singh told the House on Wednesday that the panel report was presented in the state assembly on December 16, 1986, and also on March 5, 2001, but action taken report on the panel’s report was never presented in the assembly.The commission had recorded, “All these circumstances show that the situation was not properly handled by A K Sharma and he did not even get the help of SSP Jalandhar (Mohammad Izhar Alam, who later retired as state police DGP) and district magistrate Jalandhar (Darbara Singh Guru), who were available.” Guru later remained principal secretary to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and after retirement, unsuccessfully contested assembly election on SAD ticket in 2012 from Bhadaur constituency.“The mob was not armed with such weapons with which they could cause any danger to the security forces. They were still at a distance of 15 to 20 yards from the security forces and there was no danger to the lives of the security men, nor to any public man,” the panel added.“The mob simply proceeded to go to the gurdwara for ‘darshan’ of the holy burnt ‘birs’ and firing was ordered. For the simple injuries on persons of some policemen, killing of four persons and injuring eight persons was not justified.”A US-based couple, Baldev Singh and his wife Balbir kaur, had written to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh last year, asking him to reveal the contents of a judicial commission’s report on the Behbal Kalan firing-like killing of four Sikh youths in Nakodar, Jalandhar district, on February 4, 1986.The demand by the couple, who are parents of victim Ravinder Singh, had come close on the heels of Amarinder announcing that the probe report on Bargari sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing would soon be tabled in the state assembly.

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