What’s Behind Saffron Activists Getting Bumped off Across Punjab?

In April last year, Chand Kaur, matriarch of the Namdhari sect of Sikhs, was shot dead inside the sect HQ compound in Bhaini Sahib village near Ludhiana. The case remains unsolved. Three weeks on in the same month, Durga Prasad Gupta, a local Shiv Sena leader, was shot dead in Khanna, again in Ludhiana district. It was first seen as a result of local rivalry.

Unsolved Murder Cases

• 3 April, 2016: Chand Kaur, matriarch of the Namdhari sect, killed at Bhaini Sahib in Ludhiana
  
• 23 April : Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta shot dead in Khanna
  
• 6 Aug: RSS state vice-president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) shot dead in Jalandhar
  
• 25 Feb, 2017: Dera Sacha Sauda follower Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh killed in Jagera village on Ludhiana-Malerkotla road
  
• 14 Jan: Amit Sharma, district president of Shri Hindu Takht, shot dead outside Durga Mata Temple in Ludhiana
  
• 15 June: Pastor Sultan Masih killed in Ludhiana by two bike-borne assailants in Ludhiana
  
• 17 Oct: RSS shakha leader and BJP RTI wing member Ravinder Gosain gunned down outside house in Ludhiana
  
• 30 Oct: Vipin Sharma, district president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena in Amritsar, shot dead
  

Series of Killings in Punjab

But it was the 6 August killing of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Punjab vice-president Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) in Jalandhar that pointed towards this being a chain set in motion.

The latest victims of the spate of violence are Vipin Sharma, district president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena, who was shot dead in Amritsar on 30 October and Ravinder Gosain, an RSS shakha pramukh (morning gathering head) and BJP RTI wing leader, who was shot dead on 17 October outside his house in Gagandeep Colony of Ludhiana.

And now the police are surer than ever that this is part of a larger gameplan to “upset the peace of Punjab”.

So far since April last year, nine religious or religio-political leaders have been killed in Punjab in eight attacks – five of the victims being Hindu right-wingers, two followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda and a Christian pastor, besides the Namdhari matriarch.

While the police have since delinked the Namdhari murder from this chain as it is widely believed to be part of a succession battle within the sect, the modus operandi in other cases is similar – two bike-borne assailants fired pistol shots from close range and disappeared into the crowd.

Also Read: RSS Leader Ravinder Gosai’s Murder Case Transferred to NIA

Police Seem Clueless

The pattern could have been detected earlier when there was an attack on RSS leader Naresh Kumar in Ludhiana in February last year, and he was fortunate to survive.

Unfortunately, the police have failed to make any headway in any of these cases, except linking them to radical Sikh or Khalistani separatist outfits that appear to have a beef with all of these targeted sections – the RSS, the Dera, the Namdhari sect and the Christian groups allegedly spreading their religion at the cost of Sikhism.

Gosain’s murder case has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that usually probes terror-related incidents, while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already probing the Namdhari sect murder and the killing of Gagneja.

Also Watch: Local Journalist and RSS Worker Shot Dead in UP’s Karanda

Case With ‘International Ramifications’

The Congress had little option but to move the NIA as, while the murders began during the SAD-BJP regime that went out of power early this year, Capt Amarinder Singh now faces the same allegations that he levelled then – that the police are incompetent and the government is clueless as well.

Former BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia has said:

These assailants continue to kill people. The situation is going from bad to worse. And it’s a serious concern that our police are clueless. This is a big threat to all residents of the state, in fact.

The chief minister has cited “international ramifications” behind handing over the Gosain case to the NIA. This is largely due to the fact that Pakistan is considered as the sanctuary and financier for the Khalistani groups, besides separatist elements settled in Canada and other parts of the West, particularly after nearly two decades of organised militancy ended in the state by the mid-1990s.

The state director general of police (DGP), Suresh Arora, thinks handing the case over to the NIA will “help in unifying the investigation being carried out by the security agencies”.

Meanwhile, the state government has given Rs 5 lakh to Gosain’s kin and promised a job to one of his sons. “We just want justice,” says his son Deepak who works for a hosiery mill.

Our father had no enmity. He was a dedicated to the RSS and was diligent about the shakha. That’s all.

Deepak Gosain, Victim’s son

Connecting Link With Ludhiana

The trails at present are running cold, say police officers who do not want to be named.

Even the recovery of the bike used for Gosain’s murder did not lead anywhere. It was stolen and even reported stolen and the police have had to suspend two police personnel for not taking action in that theft FIR.

Police official in Ludhiana on condition of anonymity

A common link to Ludhiana also comes across in all the cases.

Barring Gagneja’s killing in Jalandhar and the murder in Amritsar, all the victims were targeted in Ludhiana district. In that case too, attackers entered Jalandhar from the Phagwara-Ludhiana side.

Police official on condition of anonymity

But it could just be trivia. Being a bustling, crowded, unplanned industrial city, it is the perfect hideout too.

DGP Arora has been candid. “I admit that this gang has posed a serious challenge for us... Sometimes we get very hopeful, and sometimes our investigations reach a dead end,” he was quoted as saying by HT.

He remained incommunicado to us, while the NIA officers did not want to talk to the media either.

RSS’ Response

The RSS has been cautious in its response.

“We have been told not to speak to the media individually,” said a fellow RSS worker of Gosain. “But all I can say is that there is panic among some groups due to the new (BJP-led) regime in power at the Centre. We are only doing our work of holding morning exercise drills!”

RSS’s pranth karyavahak, number two in its state hierarchy, Vinay Sharma, said:

The motive is clear. There are people who don’t want to see Punjab peaceful and progressive, and by killing our workers and leaders they just want to create communal tension. These are targeted and symbolic killings, so that one particular community boils, and Punjab is a troubled state again.

Skirmishes Over ‘Danger to Sikhism’

There have been skirmishes between radical Sikhs and Hindus, and even radical Sikhs and Christian propagators in villages, over “danger to Sikhism”.

The sentiment was manifested and even heightened in the latest function by the RSS wing, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, which organised a function in Delhi to mark the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. The event was attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat .

It was decreed against by the Sikh temporal seat Akal Takht after pressure from radical groups that believe the RSS wants to “subsume” Sikhism into Hinduism and enter its institutions. The BJP’s ally Shiromani Akali Dal – which holds levers to Sikh religio-politics – abstained itself as a result. The BJP has since dared the Akalis to break up and fight alone.

As for what’s the RSS strategy now, Vinay Sharma said:

We will not resort to any agitation. But we will not stop attending shakhas or doing other work. Our workers have peacefully fought against violence on RSS workers in Kerala as well... The message of the assailants is clear, that they can kill anybody without any fear! So, the ball is in the court of the investigation agencies and the state government.

Gosain’s son Deepak echoes this sentiment:

One of my brothers will now be going to the shakha full-time in place of papa. We will not be cowed down.

Also Watch: How One Punjabi Girl’s Dreams Ended in an Arabian Nightmare

(The author is a Chandigarh-based journalist.)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to [e-mail] or WhatsApp @ [phone])