The formation of a probe panel headed by a police officer of ADGP rank to look into the fake encounters carried out by certain Punjab police officers who under the garb of fighting “militancy” killed innocent persons to get out of turn promotion beside monetary gains is a sham.

It would be preposterous to expect justice and fair deal from the class of perpetrators. “It is a foregone conclusion that the probe panel headed by a police officer who was not only a part of the system but was a strong votary of applying terror tactics would lead to nothing”.

For such situation one of the Urdu poet has rightly said, “Unka Shahr, Voh hi Katal, Voh hi Munsif. Hum ko yakeen taa ke kasoor hamara hi niklega. (The city is theirs, they are the killers, they are the judges. We knew that we would be held guilty).

We demand that the probe panel should be headed by sitting judge of the Punjab & Haryana High court if the Akali-BJP government intends to unearth the mystery and real culprits behind the crime.

It may be recalled that on demand from various human rights groups, Parkash Singh Badal during his last stint as chief minister ordered an inquiry to dig out the truth behind the mysterious death of former jathedar of Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaonke in the police custody but to no avail. The report by then ADGP N Tewari was submitted on the table of the chief minister within specific timeframe but Badal choose to sit on it rather than making it public, they chided.

We doubt the sincerity of the government and see the fresh directive as an another ploy of Badal meant not only to divert attention of the public but also to defuse the situation.

Apart from what has been appeared in the media, there were still numerous cases of such nature where persons shown dead were in fact kept in illegal custody to be used for “ulterior motives”.