Times
of India: Meerut: Wednesday, 29 July 2015.
As the attack
in Gurdaspur refreshed memories of the time when militancy was at its peak, TOI
discovered that a Meerut-based RTI activist had uncovered precise official data
about the number of lives lost in the Punjab militancy. According to
information from the internal security department of the Union home ministry,
from 1980 to 2000, 11,694 citizens lost their lives in terror attacks; 1,784
security force personnel were either killed or injured in that period in the
line of duty.
Lokesh
Khurana, who has filed several RTI applications, found that 8,069 militants
were killed by security forces in that time.
The
information divulged by the internal security department said that between 1989
and 2004, nine bomb explosions left 130 people dead and 263 injured. Eight VIP
killings took place. Among those killed was Punjab CM Beant Singh, who was
assassinated on August 31 1995 by a lone attacker with seven kg of RDX strapped
to his belt.
Khurana who
runs an eatery and sells milk products, has an interesting story of how he came
to file this particular RTI.
"In
December 2014, a few traders from Punjab arrived at my shop for breakfast.
After serving them the food they ordered, I opened up envelops I received, all
of them responses to RTI petitions I had earlier filed. One of the people
visiting asked what I was up to. I told him that I am also an RTI activist. He
told me that relatives of his had been killed during the height of militancy in
Punjab. He said he always wanted to know how many people were killed in the
two-decade mayhem. That was when I struck upon filing this RTI. I filed the RTI
application on January 29 this year. The man never contacted me again, but I
got the RTI reply on February 27," Khurana says, adding that what the
response revealed has been deeply disturbing.
The home
ministry information included details of the massacre at Baddowal railway
station near Ludhiana on June 16, 1991 in which Khalistan Liberation Front
(KLF) extremists killed 50 passengers and injured 26, using AK 47 assault
rifles. Six months later, in a similar attack, terrorists killed 52 train
passengers at Sodhian in Ludhiana.
Indiscriminate
firing in a market in Abohar, Fazilka district, on March 7, 1990, left 33 dead
and 25 injured. This too features in the list the RTI activist was provided.
There is a
mention of the brutal killing of 27 employees of Swaraj Tractor Company in
Ropar.
Khurana said
that although the list had a consolidated figure of the casualties in the
militancy decades, only the main incidents that occurred between 1989 and 2004
were listed.
"I am
sure there were many more VIP killings and massacres for which details are not
provided. Among the most important VIPs killed was Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi, gunned down in Delhi on October 31, 1984," he said.
The report,
however, did mention the number of Sikhs killed after Indira Gandhi's
assassination. "As per the Ahuja Committee Report, 2,733 persons were
killed in Delhi," the RTI response said.
The Ahuja
Committee report mentioned that in just three days, 2,733 Sikhs were killed in
Delhi in largely organised violence.
Bloody
days :
· June 16, 1991: KLF extremists shoot dead 50 train
passengers at Baddowal Railway station near Ludhiana
· December 26, 1991 KLF extremists shoot dead 52 train passengers
at Sodhian near Ludhiana
· July 8, 1997 RDX explosion kills 34 in a train at
Bhatinda
· March 22, 1991 Khalistan Commando Force extremists kill
27 employees of Ropar-based Swaraj Tractor Company
· August 31, 1995 Chief Minister Beant Singh of Punjab
assassinated in a bomb explosion; attacker blows himself up outside Punjab
Secretariat. 18 others also die