Teaming With The Enemy

[Nalwa]

Hemmed in by securitymen in his lonely hideout, with only his cyanide capsule for company, for Rakesh Kumar, alias Ranjit Singh, alias Pappu, death was the only escape.

Rakesh Kumar (pillion) with KCF chief Kashmira Singh

Coercion and force were instrumental in Rakesh Kumar's march into terror's arms. But once in, he had a menacing rise in militant hierarchy.

But the choice he made on January 24 was startling. Because when he bit into the killer capsule, he was dying for an alien cause. A Hindu, he had grown into a hardcore member of the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF - Kashmira group).

More surprising, he is not the only Hindu youth to sound the Sikh war cry. The police admit that they have a dozen listed as 'Hindu militants', but the number must be many times more.

Apart from them, at least 10 of this strange breed have been killed in police encounters in the past few years while a few are under detention.

The paradox of a growing number of Hindus making common cause with those fighting to 'end the tyranny of the Brahminical rule' and the creation of Khalistan still defies understanding. Police and political observers alike are out of their depth in explaining the anomaly. Officials attribute it to the lure of lucre and adventurism, plus the respect and fear the militants evoke in rural Punjab.

Besides, in the militant-stronghold border belt, the surcharged atmosphere affects the Sikh and Hindu youth alike. And then, as Majitha police chief Paramjit Singh says: "Local connections matter in motivating youths to join the extremist ranks."

Ashok Kumar (right) with fellow militants at their hideout

Converts to militancy such as Ashok Kumar Billa are more loyal to the cause and often more dangerous than their Sikh counterparts.

Predictably, the authorities fight shy of admitting that police high-handedness and unemployment could also be factors.

They, instead, accuse militant gangs of using coercion and ideological brainwashing to win over clean-shaven Hindu boys in order to use them as safe couriers. "They are useful in carrying messages and weapons and settling ransom amounts," points out a police officer who had a stint in Batala.

Coercion clearly was crucial in Rakesh Kumar's conversion. He had been trying to buy peace with the militants for long. As a salesman in a rural cooperative society at Mehsampura, in the Beas area, he had a close shave in 1988 when militants snatched his scooter and robbed him of the society money.

Fearful, he started growing a beard and sporting a turban. The turning point for him came when he was kidnapped by the militants a year ago. Argues his retired havildar father Jagdish Raj: "He took to the ruinous path out of compulsion, not conviction."

But once Rakesh joined the KCF, his rise was menacing. As close associate of Kashmira Singh, he was involved in a dozen killings and in several cases of extortion. His family came to know of his end only when they saw an advertisement in the newspaper announcing a bhog in his memory.

The grieving parents and widow of Rakesh Kumar who took cyanide

The ruthlessness of Hindu militants is baffling the police as much as their metamorphosis. Many of them have no compunction in making even innocent Hindus their targets. "They are more dangerous and desperate than Sikh militants," says an Amritsar police official. Ironically, their terror has triggered large-scale Hindu migration from their own villages.

Take for instance, the case of Balwant Rai, alias Gullu, alias Gurdit Singh, a top lieutenant of KCF chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar and wanted in 30 killings. Coming from a poor Brahmin family of Khilchian town, he had drifted into militancy three years ago.

When a rival gang leader threatened to wipe out the local Hindu families, he reportedly eliminated a couple of their members. Caught in the crossfire, the town's 20-odd Hindu families fled. His killing in an encounter two months ago provokes the remark "good riddance" from his cousin Inderjit.

Like Gullu and Pappu, many Hindus have risen to occupy the top rungs in the militant hierarchy, say police officials. But the hump of passing the faith and reliability test has to be crossed first. Any breach means death. Officials cite the case of Ashok Kumar Billa, of Romana Chak village, who had become a hardcore member of the Babbar Khalsa. When arrested a few months ago, Billa proved to be a hard nut to crack for the interrogating agencies, who wanted to know the whereabouts of his gang's arms dump.

Mother displaying Ramesh Lal's trophy

Eventually, the arms were seized when a Sikh member squealed. The way to such loyalty is often chequered. Some Hindu youths take to the gun to settle personal scores, but coming in contact with militants in or outside the jails hardens them into terrorists. Ramesh Lal, alias Mehsi, alias Kabul Singh, is today a wanted militant of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force. But he was a district-level wrestler in his school days in a village of Dera Baba Nanak area.

The humiliation of not finding a job despite bribing an official turned into fury when some influential villagers got him arrested following a dispute. Naturally, he took up the avenger's role with some coaxing from a militant. The police records, however, show that after some militants shot dead seven Hindus of the village, he enlisted himself with a rival gang.

The experience now of Ramesh Lal's family is typical of the utter haplessness of the Hindu militants' kith and kin who face the wrath of militants as well as the police. Ramesh's father and other relations have been detained and tortured many times over, to secure the absconder's surrender. "My son would never have gone underground had the police not harassed him," insists Ramesh's mother. Adds his younger brother, Mahinder Pal: "While we live under the fear of militants, there is no let-up in police high-handedness."

The Hindu militants' families face the wrath of both the police and the extremists.

One ploy the militants use to I ensnare Hindu boys is to first embroil them in minor crimes. But once caught in the vortex of terrorism, they find no way out.

For instance, Vikas Pandit, a Batala scooter mechanic, started off as a willing 'spotter' for a school buddy bent upon killing a local bjp leader. Subsequently, under duress, he actively worked for the KCF (Zaffarwal) and terrorised local industrialists until the security forces killed him.

Mother of the first Hindu militant, Roshan Lal Bairagi

Treating the saying "if you can't beat them, join them" as a precept was how Vishnu Dutt and Prem Kumar, Brahmin brothers of Jamalpur village, 7 km from Damdami Taksal's base, came to militancy. The villagers recall that the family was associated with Sant Bhindranwale. But after one of their relations was killed during Operation Blue Star, they got themselves baptised.

Later, Vishnu grew into a dreaded militant under the KCF's Bakhshish Singh Kalyug, but fell to police bullets. Soon after his brother's killing, Prem Kumar, alias Panthjit Singh, too picked up the AK-47. He is now second-in-command in the Khalistan Armed Force, according to the police.

Unemployment, however, is what propelled Pardeep Kumar on a militant trajectory. A trained electrician in Bhagowal village near Batala, he could not find a job. Joining a Sikh seminary in 1989, he came into contact with a Babbar Khalsa member. Before his arrest in April last year, the police allege, he was smuggling arms from Pakistan (see interview).

Vishnu Dutt's uncle, Charan Das with his wife

Clearly, militancy by Hindu-turned-Sikhs has grown exponentially since the first reported case of Roshan Lal Bairagi of Varpal village in Amritsar district who was arrested from New Delhi in 1986. The militants cannot be but grateful.

The 'martyrdom' of Hindu-born militants is as widely publicised and their bhogs as largely attended as of other militants. Thousands had turned up at the border village of Madhar at the joint bhog ceremony of Sarwan Kumar, alias Palwinder Singh, and his brother Ashok Kumar, alias Sukhwinder Singh, after they were killed in police encounters.

Does the aberration throw up any political pointers? Veteran CPI leader and Punjab observer Sat Pal Dang thinks so. Says he: "It only goes to prove that terrorism in Punjab is no more an ideological movement but has become a profession." Also that it is duress, harassment, and unemployment that may be leading young boys into the arms of terror. And clearly these states of distress are coloured neither by religion nor faith.

[Mehtab Singh]

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/49632-the-psychology-behind-the-reason-why-some-non-sikhs-converted-to-sikhism-and-joined-the-khalistani-movement/?p=605293