Tag: SInghu border killing

  • Singhu border killing: NCM gives Khattar govt 15 days to file detailed report

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The National Commission for Minorities on Monday sought a detailed report from the Haryana government on the killing of Lakhbir Singh at the Singhu border. The minorities panel also sought details on the alleged desecration of the holy book of Sikhs. Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities Iqbal Singh Lalpura took suo-moto cognizance of the matter and directed the Haryana government to file a report in the matter within 15 days. 

    “NCM is seeking a report to be furnished within 15 days from the Chief Secretary, Haryana regarding the details of Holy book which was stated to be desecrated and comments of Jathedhar Akal Takht, Amritsar on the said action of desecration of the Holy Book and the ensuing brutal action by group of Nihangs,” the minorities panel said, in a statement. 

    The development comes a day after Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh termed the lynching at the Singhu border a result of the failure of rule of law and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident “so that the right side of the Sikh community could be presented to the world.” 

    In a statement issued on Sunday, Giani Harpreet Singh asked the government and the police not to take it as a matter of law and order in view of the religious sensitivity and emotional seriousness of the matter. He also exhorted the media to refrain from tarnishing the image of Sikhs by showing incomplete aspects of the incident.

    Immediate reaction

    The development comes a day after Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh termed the lynching at the Singhu border a result of the failure of law and demanded a thorough investigation

  • Singhu border lynching: Victim’s family says he was ‘god-fearing’, demands high-level probe

    By PTI

    The family of Lakhbir Singh, a Dalit farm labourer brutally killed by members of a Sikh sect for alleged sacrilege, said on Saturday he was a god-fearing man who would never think of desecrating a holy book and demanded a high-level probe to bring out the truth.

    His wife Jaspreet Kaur and three daughters aged 12, 11 and eight years live in a small temporary house made of mud and bricks in village Cheema Kalan, around 50 km away from the holy city of Amritsar.

    His son passed away two years ago.

    The family was barely managing two square meals a day when Lakhbir was alive and would work in the village fields or in the grain market of Tarn Taran district for his livelihood.

    ​ALSO READ | Singhu border lynching: BJP blames unions, SAD wants probe into all angles

    “Who will come forward to look after his family now and what about the future of his children…..who will help them,” laments his sister Raj Kaur.

    The body of Lakhbir Singh, 35, was found tied to an overturned police barricade at the Singhu Border site where farmers are protesting against the three central farm laws.

    His left hand was chopped off and his body had over 10 wounds caused by sharp-edged weapons.

    Hours after the macabre crime, a man wearing the blue robes of the Sikhs’ Nihang order claimed that he had “punished” the victim for “desecrating” a Sikh holy book.

    The man, identified as Sarabjit Singh from Vitwha in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, was later arrested for the lynching.

    Questioning his claim, Jaspreet Kaur and Raj Kaur said Lakhbir Singh “had a deep respect for the holy Guru Granth Sahib”.

    “He was a god-fearing man who could not never think of desecrating a holy book….Whenever he used to go to a Gurdwara, he would pray for the well-being of his family and the society,” said Jaspreet Kaur.

    ​ALSO READ | Singhu border lynching: Haryana Police detains one person in Sonipat

    He had no criminal record and there was no report of him being a bad character, the victim’s family said and demanded a high-level probe into the entire episode to bring out the truth.

    Jaspreet and Raj Kaur said even if it is assumed for a moment that Lakhbir had done something wrong, those who killed him in such a barbaric manner should have given him time to prove his innocence, or they could have handed him over to the police.

    “At no stage could they be the deciding authority while running their own self-styled court which pronounced punishment and then murdered him inhumanly. Where does the law of land prevail here?” said his grieving sister.

    His family members including sister-in-law Simranjit Kaur and mother-in-law Sawinder Kaur told the media that Lakhbir Singh and his sister Raj Kaur were adopted by a retired army man Harnam Singh who was issueless.

    ALSO READ | ‘Opposed to any form of violence’: Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Singhu border ‘gruesome killing’

    Harnam Singh, however, is now no more.

    The family claimed that Lakhbir had no affiliation with any of the political outfits and never went to any political rally in support of any political person.

    His sister Raj Kaur said, “My brother was having mere Rs.50 when he left home and that money was not enough to reach Singhu border but he might have reached there while taking a lift from some tractor trolley or truck”.

    “Moreover, before the incident, my brother was living with those people, who are now behind his murder, for three days,” she claimed.

    Asked why Lakhbir had gone to the Singhu border, Raj Kaur said, “Someone might have offered him more money (for labour)”.

  • ‘Opposed to any form of violence’: Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Singhu border ‘gruesome killing’

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Friday issued a statement condemning the “gruesome killing” of a man whose mutilated body was found this morning near the farmers’ protest site at Kundli in Haryana on the Singhu Border near Delhi.

    The SKM, an umbrella organisation under which many unions are protesting against farm laws, said that “both the parties to the incident, the Nihang group and the deceased person, have no relation with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha”.

    “Samyukt Kisan Morcha condemns this gruesome killing and wants to make it clear that both the parties to this incident, the Nihang group (accused) and the deceased person, have no relation with Samyukt Kisan Morcha,” the statement read.

    According to SKM, “A person hailing from Punjab (Lakhbir Singh, son Darshan Singh, Village Cheema Kala, Police Station Sarai Amanat Khan, District Tarn Taran) was mutilated and murdered this morning at the Singhu Border.”

    ALSO READ | Unidentified young man brutally murdered at Singhu border

    “A Nihang group at the scene has claimed responsibility, saying that the incident took place because of the deceased’s attempt to commit sacrilege with regard to the Sarbaloh Granth,” added the statement.

    According to the Haryana Police, the deceased has been identified as Lakhbir Singh, a labourer aged 35 or 36-year-old hailing from Punjab’s Tarn Taran.

    The body was found hanging on a police barricade at the farmers’ protest site near Singhu border in the early hours of Friday, DSP Hansraj said.

    The SKM has demanded that the culprits should be punished after lawful investigation into the allegation of murder and conspiracy behind sacrilege and they will “cooperate with the police and administration in any lawful action.”

    The group said that it is “against sacrilege of any religious text or symbol, but that does not give anyone the right to take the law into their own hands”.

    “This peaceful and democratic movement is opposed to violence in any form,” the SKM said .