Indian police kill three Sikh youths in modern fake encounter

Sikhs across the world have expressed outrage about the killing of three Sikh men aged from 25-18 by Uttar Pradesh (UP, India) police this week, in a case which carries all the hallmarks of a classic “fake encounter” murder.

Varinder Singh alias Ravi (23), Gurwinder Singh (25), and Jashanpreet Singh alias Partap Singh (18) were pictured seemingly under arrest shortly before they were shot dead in the same clothes they were pictured in in mugshots shared by authorities, all on 23rd December by Puranpur Police officers in the Pilibhit district of UP.

Pilibhit police superintendent Avinash Pandey detailed how officers acted on a tip-off and confronted the suspects around 5am before “the men opened heavy fire” at the police. At the time the men were allegedly “intercepted while attempting to cross the Nepal border on a bike”, whilst carrying two ak-47s and a glock pistol.

No explanation was given as to how the men were photographed in the same clothes before they were later killed, in pictures used by authorities to detail the men. Sikh PA will not be sharing images of the men after they were shot, but they can be seen wearing the same clothes in what are now viral images in Sikh circles.

Punjab Police senior Gaurav Yadav made a statement that the arrest was part of a joint operation with Punjab authorities and the trio, all from Gurdaspur (Punjab), were members of the Khalistan (free Sikh homeland movement) Zindabad Force (KZF), responsible for an alleged grenade attack on the Bakhshiwala Police Post in Kalanaur, Gurdaspur, on December 19th. However, the alleged attack on Bakshiwala – described as a “low-intensity blast” which seemingly had few witnesses or any casualties – was not reported as a Khalistani attack by India’s mainstream media at the time, as seen in the report below.

No reports prior to the killing associate the men with any Khalistani activism and no prominent Khalistan lead figures have stated the three have association to the movement. Instead, the killings have been condemned as a modern fake encounter.

Speaking to BBC News Punjabi, family members of Gurwinder Singh said they were not being allowed to see his body, whilst also expressing wider disbelief about the police allegations about the boys, even to the extent as to claiming he would not have been able to travel to Uttar Pradesh from his home in Gurdaspur (district of Punjab, approximately 800km from Pilibhit). Jashanpreet Singh’s mother also stated her son was not involved in the Khalistan movement. The men were said to have been pursuing attempts to get truck driving licenses to improve their financial situations. Others close to the boys were unwilling to come forward to speak, likely for fear of police reprisal. Jashanpreet Singh had been married just three-months, with his wife saying to media the accusations against him were “utter lies”.

Contrastingly, police in the state of Uttar Pradesh have a long history of fake encounter murders of Sikhs. Just this week three were sentenced on the same day as the killings, whilst an officer involved in the “disappearance” (murder) of revered Shaheed (martyr) Jaswant Singh Khalra was also sentenced, underlining the longtime issue of India’s fake encounter Sikh killings. Another notorious 1991 killing of 10 Sikhs (including children) in the area saw over 57 police officers implicated in the massacre and its cover-up, with a similar incident also occurring in 1994.

Furthermore, Uttar Pradesh has become a hotbed of anti-Sikh activity under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adiyanath, a fanatical proponent of Hindutva (Hindu extremism) and leading BJP figure, the in-power far-right nationalist party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Other anti-Sikh incidents in UP include:

• Police involvement in covering-up the rape of a 13-year-old Sikh girl this year
• The bulldozer destruction of a Sikh village and langar hall by government in 2022
• The government-linked Lakhimpur Keri terror attack against mainly Sikh #FarmersProtest demonstrators in 2020
• Seizing land of 30,000 Sikh farmers in 2020
• and more

Sikh groups are concerned about increased violence towards Sikhs in India, usually based on “Khalistani” allegations, used to stoke up communal tensions and bring support to the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) ideology which the BJP government wins support with, whilst also suppressing the Khalistan movement for a free Sikh homeland.

See examples of global Sikh outcry from respected figures and activists below-