M A I N   N E W S

‘They played Holi with our blood’
From Rashmi Talwar

AMRITSAR: The lone survivor of the Chatti Singhpora massacre is a shocked man.

Mr Nanak Singh (45) fled Kashmir after preliminary treatment at Army Hospital, Srinagar, following the massacre of 34 persons of which he was the only one to escape in this village in Anantnag district.

A steno in the state Animal Husbandry Department, Mr Nanak Singh is mortified at the thought of going back to his village where he has lost his 17-year-old son and five other male relatives in the worst-ever slaughter of a minority by Kashmiri terrorists.

Surrounded by family as he recuperates from a single bullet injury he relives the events of that night to this reporter. And his ‘‘providential” escape lying amongst the dead to escape death.... ‘‘Us din Holi ka din tha per hamare gaon mein ‘khoon’ ki Holi hui’’. It was the festival of Holi (March 20) on the night it all happened.

“In the morning we all played Holi and in the evening as per my routine I went to the central gurdwara. It was about 8 p.m. As we were coming out of the gurdwara we saw about 10 to 12 men in Army camouflage uniform with black commando headgear and caps. The colour of Holi was on their faces and uniform, hence their faces were not clearly visible in the dark.

‘‘They ordered us to line up against the gurdwara wall. While a few stood on guard others called out male members from nearby houses and ordered the women to remain indoors. They said they wanted to check our I.D. cards.’’

Holding our “kangris” (earthen coal hearths) in our “phirans” (loose long gown) covered with ‘‘lohi’’, none amongst us voiced a premonition of what was to come next.

In 15 minutes it was all over. ‘‘They were about 12 feet away from us. I heard a single shot in the air and then all hell broke loose as they fired indiscriminately at us. At that precise moment I was totally blank and I don’t know...if I was pushed or fell? They then came at close range to me. I felt alive but kept my eyes closely shut and held my breath.

“They fired a second round, I felt a body close to me shudder as it was fired at, then I felt excruciating pain as a bullet entered my body through our side. I bit my tongue to prevent me from screaming and never opened my eyes till I felt the sound of their feet far away.’’

“There was an eerie silence thereafter. I extricated myself from the arms and other bodies lying over me and crawled to a nearby lane while bleeding profusely. I opened my mouth to scream but my mouth was dry, then I felt myself screaming for water.

“For the first time I actually felt alive. I only remember my throat turn hoarse with the screaming and pain. It was at 4 a.m. when I felt the pain ease and was told that I was at Army Hospital.”

He related this while his wife, Gurdip Kaur, quietly cried for the son they had lost.

Mr Nanak Singh revealed that contrary to the media reports, actually 34 people were killed simultaneously, but in separate batches.

“While 19 of us were lined up here the other 15 were lined along the wall of the Shokeenpora gurdwara a stone’s throw away from ours. We could not see each other. The single air fire was a signal to start firing on us at the same time.”

“Waheguru” is my saviour I had his name on my lips even when we were lined up. Looking upwards he recalls.

I am scared to go back to the house where I have lost six members of my family. The sound of firing is still loud and clear when I close my eyes, he adds.

Dr Parvinder Sandhu, his doctor, says that Nanak is recovering satisfactorily. Although Dr A.P.S. Bhatia, a psychiatrist feels that a person in this condition could suffer post-traumatic depression, manifesting itself in withdrawal symptoms like acute anxiety, phobia of strangers, nightmares and an unconscious effort not to recover as ground for not going back to the massacre site.

Loan sharks spread terror
From Ruchika Mohindra
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, May 10 — Certain private moneylenders and the local police have allegedly entered into a nexus to grab the city’s private finance market and terrorise clients.

Around 50 odd private moneylenders of this industrial megapolis (most of them political leaders and even some police officers) between them control a major part of the city’s finance market, allegedly with the active support of certain senior police officials. Investigations by TNS show that the combined business of these moneylenders could well be over Rs 30 crore.

Interestingly, each moneylender controls specific areas of the city and competitors are expected to stay out of each others zone of operation. Besides controlling the finance market of their territories, these financiers also alleged muzzle anyone daring to compete or object to their way of functioning.

Investigations show that the rate of interest changed by these money-lenders is generally four to five times higher than the interest rate charged by banks and registered finance companies. In return loans involve few formalities the main one being that the purchase deed of the property of the borrower is pledged with the financier or the financier is given blank signed cheques as security.

“The true face of these financiers”, according to a client of a financier operating in the Civil Lines area “becomes visible when there is a slight delay in paying a monthly instalment and the interest “. He alleges that the clients are first asked to pay a daily penalty, which can be as high as the interest amount for the entire month.

“If per chance, the borrower is unable to pay the penalty, the henchmen of financiers will beat up the borrower, creating a fear psychosis,” alleges another client, who borrowed money from a financier operating in the Haibowal locality. Interestingly almost all of the money-lenders have “interrogation rooms” in their official premises where defaulters are mentally harassed and assaulted.

A small time businessman, who had taken a loan of Rs 25,000 from a private financier and has already paid over Rs 1 lakh in interest alone, alleged that even if borrowers managed to overcome the fear psychosis created by the financier and his goons and sought police help, it was usually denied since most financiers had links with the senior police officials.

Interestingly, many financiers are themselves being investigated on various charges including property disputes, forgery, criminal trespass, snatching of valuables etc. But they are seldom arrested. The financiers are also learnt to be in possession of licensed arms — which are allegedly used for threatening defaulters and would be defaulters.

Recently residents of Vishal Nagar area had organised a protest march in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office and urged upon the then DC, Mr Arun Goel, to cancel the arms licence of a financier, Jaswinder Singh Jassi as he was misusing it to terrorise residents of the locality. The arms licence was subsequently been cancelled.

In another incident a youth was murdered by the henchmen of a known Congress leader, allegedly with the motive of grabbing the apartment he had pledged with them as security.

TNS found that a big slice of the city business in controlled by a Congress leader of the new Deep Nagar area with the help of a local police officer of the rank of inspector. His area operations is Civil Lines and around 300 persons are at present believed to be under his debt.

It is claimed that despite around 10 FIRs in cases of forgery, criminal trespass violence etc being registered against him, no action has been taken because of his connections with several senior police officers.

Other major players in the market are again mostly politicians or cops. Thus a Congress leader controls Basti Jodhewal area, another controls Haibowal, part of Chandernagar and Fieldganj while an Akali Dal worker controls the old city area near Nimwala Chowk. A sub-inspector of police, presently under suspension and another Congress leader are also operating in parts of Chander Nagar.