Hans Kalan Encounter

Battles of the Khalistan Movement

 

In an encounter near Hans Kalan village in Jagraon subdivision of Ludhiana district on May 17, 1991, one Singh was martyred a few hours after he had surrendered to the police in presence of several persons in broad day light. A little earlier, five other Jhujaroo Singhs along with him fought nearly 300 police and CRPF personnel before being killed in a brave encounter. In this encounter, at least half-a-dozen security men died and more than a dozen injured. The Khalistan Liberation Force (Budhsinghwala) also made an identical claim as reported by me.

The five martyred in the encounter on side of the Khadku were identified as Shaheed Darspreet Singh Roomy, Shaheed Sukhwinder Singh Kalajhande, Shaheed Hardeep Singh Rimpy, Shaheed Rupinder Singh Khalsa and Shaheed Mohan Singh Sheikhapura of the Khalistan Liberation Force and the Khalistan Commando Force.

The sixth, who surrendered before the police and was subsequently killed, was KCF (Panjwar) Jhujaroo, Kush Karanjot (Honey) Singh. Amar Singh Chachrali and several others, who were working in their agricultural fields, saw the sixth militant, Khush Karanjot Singh surrender to the police following the killings of his companions in the fierce encounter which lasted over four hours.

The eyewitnesses to the surrender were also rounded up for a while. Khush Karanjot Singh, only a boy, was mercilessly beaten up with rifle butts in the eyewitness’s presence. Their account revealed that the boy was taken away in a jeep. After about two hours at 6 PM, the police jeep came back with the boy, who was told to run. As soon as the boy got out of the jeep, he was fired upon and fell down.

Mukhtiar Chand (S.P. Operations), who led the security forces, gave a story to the press that six militants had been killed in the encounter.

Martyred Sikhs

The six martyred Sikhs were:

  • Shaheed Bhai Darspreet Singh Roomy
  • Shaheed Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Kalajhande
  • Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh Rimpy
  • Shaheed Bhai Rupinder Singh Khalsa
  • Shaheed Bhai Mohan Singh Sheikhapura
  • Shaheed Bhai Kush Karanjot Singh alias Honey