Farmers Movement Archive

Singhu lynching: Victim’s kin says he could never think of desecrating holy book

The family of Lakhbir Singh, a Dalit farm labourer killed by members of a Sikh sect for alleged sacrilege, said on Saturday he was a god-fearing man who would never think of desecrating a holy book and demanded a high-level probe to bring out the truth.His wife Jaspreet Kaur and three daughters aged 12, 11 and eight years live in a small temporary house made of mud and bricks in village Cheema Kalan, around 50 km away from the holy city of Amritsar. His son passed away two years ago.The family was barely managing two square meals a day when Lakhbir was alive and would work in the village fields or in the grain market of Tarn Taran district for his livelihood.“Who will come forward to look after his family now and what about the future of his children..who will help them,” laments his sister Raj Kaur.The body of Lakhbir Singh, 35, was found tied to an overturned police barricade at the Singhu Border site. His left hand was chopped off and his body had multiple wounds caused by sharp-edged weapons. Hours after the crime, a man wearing the blue robes of the Sikhs’ Nihang order claimed that he had “punished” the victim for “desecrating” a Sikh holy book.The man, identified as Sarabjeet Singh from Gurdaspur, was arrested for lynching. Jaspreet and Raj Kaur said Lakhbir “had a deep respect for the holy Guru Granth Sahib”. “He was a god-fearing man who could t never think of desecrating a holy book... Whenever he used to go to a Gurdwara, he would pray for the well-being of his family and the society,” said Jaspreet.

Hindustan Times

17-10-2021

India