Baljit Singh Hansra

Witness To The Handling of ‪#‎FakeEncounters‬: Baljit Singh Hansra was a municipal corporation worker in Moga, tasked with a harrowing duty: to oversee the cremation process for young Sikh men killed extrajudicially in encounters by police.

While sharing his testimony with the Project, Mr. Hansra described how he witnessed the systematic way bodies were marked as either ‘unclaimed’ or ‘unidentified’, how laborers were given 500 rupees to purchase wood and white cloth, how the government was in a hurry to get rid of the bodies in a cost-efficient manner. From 1984 to 1992, the bodies of young men – usually between the ages of 25 and 35 – would come in his district almost every day.

“ਅਸੀਂ ਇਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਅਖਾਂ ਦੇ ਸਾਮਨੇ ਦੇਖਿਆ। ਸਾਡੀ ਅਗਲੀ ਜੇਨੇਰੇਸ਼ਨ ਨੂ ਪਤਾ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹਿਦਾ ਅਸੀਂ ਕਿਥੋਂ ਨਿਕਲ ਕੇ ਆਏ ਹਾਂ । “