Vtrack Jail Calls

[Sueann]

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(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated June 15, 1985)Even one year after the army flushed out Bhindranwale's band of extremists from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, the real mechanics of extremism in Punjab have remained a more or less grey area. For every little bit of fact there are many fables and for every claim there are many disclaimers.

But now intelligence agencies claim to have worked the problem out to some extent. They have been studiously poring over the long list of "confessions" made by suspects arrested from the Golden Temple and elsewhere, trying to determine the motivations of the extremists and the strategy employed by them.

The world over, soldiers, scribes, scholars and sleuths have tried for decades to fathom the complex chemistry of an extremists' mind. Yet no one has been able to say just what turns a perfectly normal young man into a terrorist or guerrilla, readily willing to sacrifice his life for a usually unattainable cause he does not know much about.

This is also true of the Punjab terrorist. The large number of veterans in the Indian security network scanning the records of hundreds of suspected Sikh extremists, arrested, dead or at large have yet to come up with a credible answer to that question. But they lay great store by the long list of "confessions" they have collected over the months, and one of these is attributed to Virsa Singh Valtoha.

At 23, Virsa Singh, considered to be one of Bhindranwale's main hit men and blamed for the murder of Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee leader Harbans Singh Manchanda, besides scores of bombings and robberies, is a typical representative of the Bhindranwale band. One of the six sons of Sohan Singh, a small-time farmer from Valtoha village in Amritsar district bordering Pakistan, he comes from the very heart of the Amritsar-Gurdaspur-Tarn Taran-Patti belt from where Bhindranwale got the bulk of his recruits. He was arrested by the army from the Golden Temple complex during Operation Bluestar last June.

More than that, he had the kind of upbringing that, curiously, went into the mental make-up of a lot of Bhindranwale men. After passing his higher secondary examination in the first division, he was trained as a granthi in Gurudwara Baba Budha Bir Sahib in Amritsar. But he soon strayed from the spiritual path. In the B.A. first year examination, which he took in 1981, he could not pass in English and then failed in the supplementary examination in September that year. Frustrated, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Students Federation of India. But, as the Bhindranwale wave began to sweep the Punjab countryside, he shifted allegiance to the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF).

Very soon he came in contact with Kewal Singh, a cousin of AISSF President Amrik Singh who took him to the Golden Temple. Meanwhile he failed yet again to clear his English examination. What followed was almost pre-ordained. As Virsa Singh told his interrogators: "Since I had spare time, I started visiting the AISSF office in the Golden Temple and began to work voluntarily there."

It was during this period that he had his baptism in terrorism. In November, 1982, he says, AISSF general secretary Harminder Singh Sandhu asked him to join a group of youngsters in throwing bombs at the house of Punjab education minister Harcharan Singh Ajnala. He did and told his interlocutors: "Around 8 p.m. Harminder Singh Sandhu and Rajinder Singh Mehta gave us two hand-grenades from Akal Rest House. These were kept under bananas in a paper bag. Anokh Singh and I carried this bag in hand.... We found a newly-built house close to Ajnala's. Anokh Singh and I took off our shoes and trousers. While I held Anokh Singh's shoes and trousers and stayed at a distance he threw the two grenades at Ajnala's house. Both of us ran from there for about half a kilometre and crossed a canal." On returning to Amritsar, "We met Harminder Singh Sandhu and Rajinder Singh Mehta in Akal Rest House. I exchanged my clothes with those of Harminder Singh Sandhu and went to attend my college."

Once he had proved his worth in the raid he became a regular participant in Bhindranwale hit squads. But the turning point in his life came with the bomb explosions at Palika Bazar in Delhi on March 5, 1983. Virsa Singh had actively participated in the raid. Soon enough, Harminder Singh Sandhu told him that a case had been registered against him in Delhi. This was a lie but good enough to unnerve Virsa Singh. Says he: "I did not find my name mentioned in the news reports of these explosions. I, however, began to live in the Golden Temple complex for fear of arrest."

That completed his transition from an ordinary college student into a confirmed fugitive hiding from the law. In July 1983 he started living in room No. 20, Guru Ram Das Serai. Three months later he was formally appointed AISSF office secretary.

He soon became a confidant of Sandhu and others in the AISSF hierarchy. Besides, being the office secretary he was also privy to practically everything that happened within the organisation. Presuming that the details of his interrogation have been recorded honestly by investigating police officers, he seems to have a good memory and accurately recalls major turning points in the three-year history of extremism in Punjab, besides actions in which he himself participated. Here are some examples, quoted directly from the interrogation report, marked "top secret":

Murder of H.S. Manchanda: "The AISSF was banned on 19.3.84. Harbans Singh Manchanda, president of the Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC) issued press statements welcoming this and also asking Sant Bhindranwale to vacate the Akal Takht....Harminder Singh Sandhu asked Amarjeet Singh Chawla, chief organising secretary, AISSF, and me to keep in readiness for this work.

"After a day or two Harminder Singh Sandhu and Rajinder Singh Mehta took Chawla, one Gurinder Singh Bhola and me to a room in Guru Ram Das Serai. I had one .455 bore revolver and 19 bullets. Bhola had one .30 bore pistol given to him by Sandhu.

It was suggested that Bhola and Chawla should steal a vehicle for this action in Delhi ....Chawla drove the car. We reached the residence of Manchanda (in Delhi) around 8 a.m. We saw Manchanda returning to his home and then coming out in a car. We chased the car.

Five or six persons were sitting in Manchanda's car....Chawla advised that we should take a chance at the red light where the car will have to stop.... When Manchanda's car stopped at the red light near Tilak Bridge, Chawla asked me and Bhola to get down and we did so hurriedly. Both of us ran towards Manchanda's car but the light was already green and Manchanda's car had started.

I shouted at Bhola to come back but he did not listen to me. He began firing. He fired 6-7 bullets. Meanwhile I too reached near Manchanda's car. I fired six bullets from the other side. Bhola replaced his empty magazine with a new one and fired more bullets. In all Bhola must have fired about 13-14 bullets.

It was about 12 noon. We ran towards our car. Manchanda's bodyguard fired 9-10 bullets but none of these hit us. We got into our car which Chawla kept in starting position. He drove us from near Supreme Court. I was dropped near India Gate and Chawla drove away with Bhola. I caught a three-wheeler and reached Nanaksar Gurudwara.

"On 29.3.84 we caught a 9 a.m. train from Delhi and reached Amritsar around 7 p.m. Sandhu and Mehta took us to Bhai Amrik Singh who, in turn, led us to Sant Bhindranwale in Akal Takht. There was some crowd. We waited for about an hour for the crowd to thin out. Bhindranwale expressed his happiness on this work and remarked that he had since pardoned me for my earlier mistake (of calling my beloved to the Golden Temple complex)."

On distribution of arms at the Golden Temple complex: "All the AISSF inmates in the Golden Temple Complex carried revolvers/pistols on their person. These were given to them by Sant Bhindranwale. I too had been asking for one since the day I began to stay in Akal Rest House. Sant Bhindranwale did not give me any weapon for quite some time because he was annoyed with me on account of the fact that my beloved (Balwinder Kaur) had called on me in the Golden Temple complex and this had been brought to his notice. Harminder Singh Sandhu, however, succeeded in getting me one 38 revolver and 25 bullets from Sant Bhindranwale around January 1984."

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