Continuation from : Spiritual Jeevan: Shaheed Bhai Sukhdev Singh Babbar Part 6
Discipline Amongst the Ranks
It is essential in any successful organisation to have discipline amongst the ranks. Bhai Sahib would initially only allow Spiritual and Rehitvaan Gursikhs into the ranks of Babbar Khalsa. However over the years, many of the diamonds of the Movement became Shaheed such as Bhai Anokh Singh, Bhai Sulakhan Singh, etc. Some say joining forces with other Jujahroo groups led to Babbar Khalsa losing its Rehit. It is easy to sit back and criticise and hard to do Seva.
When the first generation of Singhs became Shaheed, the new recruits that were coming in, were not fighting as much because they Khalsa, and wanted to establish a homeland Khalistan on high ideals. They were coming in because of Police excesses, rape & torture in villages. As a result all Jujarhoo groups lost Singhs who had full faith in Gurmat, and never compromised their ideals. Many of the new recruits were mere kids, and the experienced Jujarhoos, themselves such as Jathedar were just in their late twenties, early thirties.
So in this new atmosphere maintaining discipline was very important. It was difficult to do, because without exposing who you are, how can you directly communicate with the ranks? You never know which youth will succume to torture in the future, or maybe a spy infiltrating the group.
The way Bhai Sahib would keep an eye on the ranks, was to sometimes pretend to be a simple Singh fighting with some cells. He would go on missions with grass roots Singhs. But these Singhs never knew that this six foot, well built Singh was the Jathedar. This way he kept an eye on the ranks, without exposing himself.
Punjab Police and the Movement
Between 1978 till the late 1980`s, many Punjab police officers actually helped the Singhs, or ignored their activities. The government was aware of this, which is why during the early days they relied more on the army. When the 5 Jujahroo groups joined forces, one of the first statements was made by Jathedar ji. In this statement, he asked all freedom fighting Singhs to not kill innocent Police Officers, and no one was to harm any families of Police Officers. This was a visionary statement, and went along way to reducing tensions between them. Jathedar ji knew the fight was not against other Punjabis, but it was against the Brahmins who used the Indian Government machinery to destroy Sikhi.
Security Services realising the impact of this statement, and also realising that the Singhs were now during the period of 1986-1989, completely controlling Punjab, they changed their tactics. The Security services via Police Commander Ribero created groups called “Black cats”. These were security services personnel, cruel police officers, some nihangs, and criminals. They would dress up as Singhs, and commit heinous crimes against innocents in Punjab. This would include kidnapping, murder, rape, torture, looting, etc. They did this dress as Singhs in bana, and after their crimes drop names of leading freedom fighters to give them a bad name in the Punjab villages which sympathised and protected the Singhs. This policy was used very effectively against Baba Manochal group, and others. The policy worked in many ways, it stopped villagers sympathising with groups, it caused problems within groups, who were not sure if the tales of woe were true. Plus the victims were those who need most protection, and the “black cats” were always richly rewarded. Many times, it was the same police officers who dressed as Singhs at night to pare and loot, then in the morning they would go and investigate, only to get recognised by the victims.
When the Congress leader Beant Singh came to power he created a policy of “Shoot to Kill” any Sikhs, without any reason. To ensure the Punjab police do not lose their hunger for genocide. He took the “black cat” policy to another level. KPS Gill is able and highly violent Commander of Police, even went as far, as sending “black cats” to kill innocent Police Officers and their families. The horror of this motivated all police officers to wipe Punjab`s earth of any Sikh youth. It kept them motivated to mass murder, pillage, loot, and annihilate any family linked to any freedom fighter.
Fake Police encounters became everyday practice, and were treated as a points scoring game. Every evening for years, KPS Gill would phone each of his main officers in each district, and they would have to report numbers of Sikh youth they had killed that day. So one would say 25, another 30, another 45. Whoever was the lowest would be frowned upon, or told he was not patriotic enough. These were the genocidal days of 1989 -1992.
Continues on: Shahid Bhai Sukhdev Singh Babbar Part 8 : Shahidi
