The then Akali government, led by Surjit Singh Barnala, set up a commission of inquiry under retired Justice Gurnam Singh to find out if the police firing was unwarranted. The commission concluded that several police officers used excessive force to control a situation which could have been avoided from developing.
Though the report was submitted in October 1986, it went missing for over a decade only to resurface in 2001 when it was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha. However, while the findings were made public, it is still not publicly known about the action, if any, was taken on the report.
What report says
On 2 February 1986, five saroops (forms) of the Guru Granth Sahib were destroyed in a fire at the Guru Arjun Dev Gurdwara in Nakodar. The 55 page report–a copy of which was digitised by the Punjab Digital Library and is in public domain–states that the saroops were kept in a small room adjoining the main hall of the gurudwara and while the exact cause of the fire was not known, it was believed that this was a deliberate attempt to desecrate the Guru Granth Sahib.
The incident flared communal anger and the AISSF, then a radical group of Sikh students, launched a protest demanding the arrest of Ramesh Chopra, the then president of the Shiv Sena in Nakodar, who, they alleged, was responsible for the fire. The AISSF carried out a march in the city on 3 February, damaging public property.
The same evening, Shama Kant Jalota, the Punjab president of the Shiv Sena, carried out a counter march with the particpants damaging property. Apart from the FIR registered in the fire incident, two separate FIRs were registered against the two sets of protesters. Curfew was imposed in Nakodar.
The next day, a large number of AISSF members gathered outside Nakodar leading to Jaladhar. In defiance of the curfew orders, the crowd started marching into the city. The report said that the police and civil administration on duty claimed that the crowd turned violent and engaged in firing, forcing them to fire. Four youths—Ravinder Singh Littran, Baldhir Singh Ramgarh, Jhirmal Singh Gursiana, and Harminder Singh—were killed. Their bodies were not handed over to the families but cremated by the police.
The report however, concluded that the gathered crowd was “agitated but peaceful” and only wanted to enter Nakodar to have a look at the burnt saroops with no intention of causing harm. “Had the police not used force on the crowd that day, it would not have led to any major law and order problem. The use of force was unwarranted and avoidable,” it said.
The four protesters, it said, were shot from up close and eight others were injured. It added that the police, on the other hand, received only minor injuries.
The report pointed out that the police and civil administration did not appreciate the gravity of the occurrence and did nothing to assuage the anger among the Sikhs. It added that the possibility of sabotage cannot be brushed aside as an “accident” as was claimed by the police. It said the police had already registered an FIR and should investigate the case thoroughly.
Apart from Part 1 of the report which runs into 55 pages and another four pages of annexures, the portion of Part 2 that contains depositions by those examined by the commission, files containing evidence and documents listed in the contents of the Part 1 are unavailable in the public domain.
Political agenda behind move?
On Tuesday, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that a copy of the report on the “tragic incidents of the year 1986” was available in the Vidhan Sabha. “But the action-taken part has mysteriously disappeared,” he said during discussions on the Punjab Prevention of Crime Against Religious Scriptures Bill, 2025, urging the Speaker to form a committee to locate this crucial report.
Hitting out at Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira whose father Sukhjinder Singh Khaira was the education minister in the Barnala government, Cheema said that the report’s missing part will enable the people to ascertain the truth behind the 1986 incidents and understand the actions of those involved at that time, and see the reality of their “descendants’” current actions.
Khaira responded saying that the entire move was not to get justice but to spread falsehoods, leading to a heated exchange. Cheema said Khaira’s father opposed the construction of a memorial gate outside the village of one of the victims. Khaira asserted that the memorial gate was duly constructed and dared Cheema to have an open debate.
The speaker intervened and asked Khaira not to disrupt the House proceedings failing which he will have to take action against him. Leader of the opposition Partap Singh Bajwa got up to say that Cheema was getting “personal” in the discussion.
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Not the first time
This is the second time in seven years that the matter came up in the Punjab assembly. In February 2019, when the Congress was in power, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that the report be made public. At the death anniversary of one of the victims in Littran village Sandhwan, then an AAP MLA, said the matter will be raised in the assembly.
Subsequently, the then AAP legislator H.S.Phoolka demanded that the report be made public. The then Speaker Rana Kanwar Pal Singh said that it was tabled in the Vidhan Sabha in March 2001 and it was a public document accessible to anyone.
The Speaker, however, added that the government had not submitted the action-taken report (ATR). Phoolka replied that even if the report was tabled, the fact that it was not accompanied by an ATR makes it a document that has no legality.
In August 2018, another AAP MLA, Kanwar Sandhu, highlighted the Nakodar killings during a House discussion. Later, Sandhu wrote to the then chief minister Amarinder Singh, seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and action on the findings of the report.
In his letter, Sandhu, a former journalist, said that he managed to access the report through sources in March 1987. Referring to his subsequent reportage for The Tribune, he said the commission held several senior government officers and police personnel guilty for the killings. The officers in question, he added, went on to occupy senior positions in the government.
‘It’s all distraction’
Baldev Singh, the father of Ravinder, is the only surviving family member among the kin of those killed in the firing. In a statement Wednesday, Baldev said the government was “distracting” the issue and was doing nothing substantial to ensure justice to the affected families.
The matter, he said, was talked about a lot by Sandhwan and Cheema when they were opposition MLAs. “However, while being in power for over three years now, the AAP government has not done anything to get us justice. We have written seven letters to CM Bhagwant Mann and all these have been sent to Cheema and Sandhwan as well.”
Baldev added that his request to Speaker Sandhwan was misinterpreted by the advocate general’s office resulting in the disposal of his petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in order to shield the perpetrators of the killings.
In 2019, the distraught man filed a plea in the HC seeking the registration of a criminal case of murder against then district magistrate (DM), Darbara Singh Guru; then senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mohd Izhar Alam, and then SP (Operations) Ashwani Kumar Sharma. In October 2023, the government told the HC that a SIT was set up to probe the Nakodar killings.
If the AAP government was really committed to giving justice, Baldev said, it should facilitate a time-bound inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to get to the bottom of how the four youth were killed and how a part of the report went missing. “File charges and arrest the police officials responsible for these atrocities. Without accountability, there is no closure.”
Following Baldev’s statement, Khaira said Cheema and Sandhwa owed explanation over the matter.
Now that Baldev Singh father of 1986 Nakodar Firing victim Ravinder Singh has come in public domain to condemn Speaker @SpeakerSandhwan & Fm @HarpalCheemaMLA for “blocking his efforts to bring culprits to justice during 3.5 years of @AamAadmiParty rule” i dare these fake… pic.twitter.com/fsKsbB5u4T
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) July 17, 2025
Radicals seek revenge
The Nakodar episode made news in September last when a terror module run by Pakistan-based gangster-turned-militant Harvinder Singh Rinda allegedly carried out a low-intensity blast at a residential house in Sector 10, Chandigarh. According to the police, retired SSP Jaskirat Singh Chahal, who lived in the house till 2023, was the likely target.
For the past several years. Chahal, along with his family, lived there on the first floor as tenants till 2023 before shifting to Jalandhar. The retired officer has been on the hit list of Sikh militants since 1986 when he was the Nakodar station house officer at the time of the firing. Radical Sikh outfits allege that while three protesters were killed on the spot, one survived the initial firing, but Chahal killed him a day later.
Chahal had security cover till October 2017 when the Punjab government withdrew his security. He challenged the orders in the HC on the grounds of being a decorated police officer. He said he got the police medal for gallantry in November 1987 after apprehending militant Gurminder Singh alias Nutty, who tried to escape after firing at a police party with the service rifle of a head constable, killing two constables. Relating his story of the Nakodar killings, Chahal told the court that he played a vital role in preventing communal riots in Nakodar in February 1986.
However, in 2022, the HC upheld the government’s decision on the grounds that one cannot claim personal security cover as a matter of right for perpetuity. The police intelligence wing also reported no dangers to the petitioner’s life, it added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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