On January 14, 1995, 27-year-old Jugraj Singh, a taxi driver, was driving his Maruti van towards the market of Mohali in Punjab, India to get his vehicle repaired.

As he proceeded, cops in civilian clothes signaled him to stop. They forcible entered Jugraj’s van and drove away.

Shortly after his disappearance, Jugraj’s father Mohinder Singh went to the police station to register a complaint, stating that people had witnessed his son's abduction by the police.

The police reported that Jugraj Singh was killed on January 15, 1995, in Amritsar in what they claimed was an armed encounter.

On November 17, 1988, Gurbachan Singh's youngest son Rashpal Singh, about 15 or 16 years old, was traveling on a bus to visit his maternal family, when Punjab police stopped the bus and removed Rashpal and another youth. That same day, the newspapers reported that the police killed five persons in an alleged encounter. One of the five is believed to be Rashpal Singh. Gurbanchan’s other son was also killed in a police encounter.

Like Jugraj and Rashpal, thousands of innocent Sikh youth were killed in police custody during the Punjab counterinsurgency operations from 1984 to 1995.

The Punjab police had invented a practise of 'staged encounter' or 'fake encounter' in which the police used to kill persons already in their custody and later staged a story that such persons were killed in a police encounter. The dead bodies of victims were secretly cremated by the Punjab police as 'unclaimed/unidentified dead bodies'.

After decades of denial by the Punjab Police that its officers unlawfully killed innocent Sikhs in fake encounters, police Sub-Inspector (SI) Surjit Singh has come forward and made a public statement describing the atrocities committed by him and security forces in Punjab.

In the precensce of media and human rights activists, Surjit Singh has admitted that he was ordered to 83 men in fake encounters.

"I didn't know whether they were guilty or innocent, but I was told to kill them regardless," said Surjit Singh who has alleged that he was acting on orders of then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Paramjit Singh Gill of Amritsar.

This latest disclosure has once against put the human rights abuses by Punjab police in focus, and triggered international calls for the whistle blowing cop’s protection and an independent investigation.

In a video, with English subtitles prepared by Ensaaf, Ensaaf, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to promoting human rights, justice and accountability in India, Surjit Singh recounts his initiation into the police force during the peak of the Punjab militancy. 

He states that he did not know if the young men were guilty or innocent, and they were killed unlawfully: "The guilty were killed, and innocent [young men] were also brought to me to be killed. I didn't know whether they were guilty or innocent, but I was told to kill them regardless."

Surjit Singh also reveals in a subsequent interview that senior officials threatened that he will meet the same end as human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was illegally detained and murdered by Punjab Police for investigating secret mass cremations. Surjit Singh states that senior officials told him, "If you open your mouth, then like Jaswant Singh Khalra who was investigating the 25,000 missing bodies, and went missing himself—the same will happen to you."

After his initial revelation last month, Surjit Singh was fired and went into hiding. 

Through its Documentation initiative, Ensaaf has investigated and documented several cases implicating either SI Surjit Singh or then SSP Paramjit Singh Gill in unlawful killings.

Human rights activist Kirpal Singh Randhawa informed local media that the Punjab and Haryana High Court would be approached to obtain an investigation into the matter. Attorney Rajvinder Bains will represent Surjit Singh. "He has told me the truth," Randhawa said of Surjit Singh. "He has given me a list of about 83 individuals… the 83 individuals who were killed illegally. Those killed in real police encounters are separate. In regards to these [innocent] men, he was given bribes and his life was threatened. They would say that if he doesn't kill someone, then he would be killed instead."

"Based on the admission of Surjit Singh and the ample and long-standing record of human rights abuses in Punjab, India must conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the atrocities, capable of leading to the identification and prosecution of the responsible officials. Unless India vindicates victims’ and survivors’ rights to truth, justice, and reparations, many will continue to fall victim to human rights abuses by security forces," said Jaskaran Kaur, Ensaaf’s Co-Director.

The World Sikh Organization of Canada last has raised the issue of threats to sub inspector Surjit Singh with Canadian Parliamentarians and asked that they do all they can to impress upon Indian authorities to provide him with the necessary protection so that he can freely tell his story.

WSO President Prem Singh Vinning said, “we have been in touch with Canadian parliamentarians and informed them of this situation. It is essential that Surjit Singh be provided protection and he be able to freely tell his story. If he comes to harm, other individuals who are stepping forward to talk about human rights abuses will also be intimidated into silence.”

Canada’s opposition parties, the NDP and Liberals have since both expressed concern over the threats to Surjit Singh.

Canada’s Official Opposition, the NDP issued a statement expressing concerns over Surjit Singh’s safety and the importance of allowing him to tell his story to investigators and the courts. 

In a letter, Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Dominic Leblanc wrote:

“The Liberal Party of Canada finds Sub Inspector Singh’s allegations very troubling. So as to properly defend this whistleblower, we call upon the Canadian government to encourage India to protect Sub Inspector Surjit Singh. We understand the seriousness of this matter, as witnessed by the disappearance of Human Rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra who received similar threats.

We are hopeful that an appropriate process can be put in place to verify the details of these allegations. Such a process must be open, independent and credible and the investigation into these allegations must have the trust of all people involved and concerned. There needs to be a fair and independent process that will promote meaningful truth and reconciliation.

The Liberal Party of Canada will continue to monitor the situation we look forward to working together on these important issues.” 

In reaction to the Surjit's revelations, the Khalsa Human Rights, the human rights wing of the Sikh Federation (UK), has written to Professor Christof Heyn, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra judicial, summary or arbitrary executions asking for an independent probe.

Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) added: ‘From what Surijit Singh has described these are clear cases of extrajudicial and arbitrary executions that are illegal and without due regard to the law or legal procedure as defined by the United Nations.’