Punjab police boost security for officers from Terrorism era. Punjab Police review security of officers who were present during the Terrorism period after grenade attack on retired SP.
The Punjab Police are carefully reviewing the security of officers who were present during the era of terrorism, following a grenade attack in Chandigarh. An investigation has already confirmed retired SP Jaskirat Singh Chahal as the target of the attack. The sector 10 residence had been the house of Chahal as a tenant till a few months ago, said a senior police official. Sources claimed that this shocking incident would garner scrutiny of the security measures for retired personnel.
Claiming responsibility for the attack was US-based gangster-terrorist Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Passia, who brazenly declared on social media that assault was retribution for Chahal’s involvement in the infamous 1986 Nakodar police firing, a tragic event in which four youths lost their lives.
This is not the first attack against Chahal. In October of last year, a similar plot was allegedly foiled by the Punjab Police’s counter-intelligence wing, which arrested four men including Bikramjit Singh, alias Raja Bains and Bawa Singh. Chahal vacated his Chandigarh residence soon after.
He has earlier been convicted of grave crimes. Babbar Khalsa International in collaboration with Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda and Pashia is suspected to have planned the conspiracy. The incident once again throws up the spotlight on the haunting chapter of the Nakodar firing case that refuses to fade from public memory.
Last October, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had passed an order that a SIT probe be conducted into the 1986 police firing. The families of the victims, accompanied by various human rights groups, have always complained that the police killed the youths in cold blood. Baldev Singh, father of one of the victims, Harminder Singh, is the only petitioner who continues the fight for justice-he is the only one among his relatives who are yet to die or have gone back on the case.
The Justice Gurnam Singh Commission, in its October 1986 report, blamed the Jalandhar police and civil administration squarely for the firing incident, which they identified as coming from a “trigger-happy inspector” named Chahal. The commission report said that on February 4, 1986, the police had opened fire at protestors against an act of sacrilege in a Nakodar gurdwara. At the time of the incident, the then SHO of Nakodar, Chahal, was held responsible for shooting Harminder Singh at point-blank range. The commission report termed this act a “cold-blooded murder by a public servant.”
The second half of the report, reportedly calling for action against the officials involved, mysteriously went missing and remains unrecovered till date. It was only the first half of the commission’s report that reached the masses.
Aftermath of the Chandigarh Grenade Attack
Confirmed target of the yesterday grenade attack in Chandigarh was retired SP Jaskirat Singh Chahal.
The police had foiled a bid on Chahal in a similar attack in October last year.
The Justice Gurnam Singh Commission in 1986 had described Chahal as a “trigger-happy inspector” while probing the Nakodar firing case.