Himalayan News Service

New Delhi, June 15:

Former Punjab Police chief KPS Gill, central minister Jagdish Tytler and Congress leader MS Bitta were on the hit list of Sikh terror group Babbar Khalsa International, its arrested chief Jagtar Singh Hawara has revealed.

Hawara, who was caught in Delhi June 8 for allegedly masterminding the May 22 twin cinema blasts that killed one person, said during police interrogation that the group had a larger plan to eliminate several prominent leaders in Delhi and elsewhere.

“Hawara has revealed that he had plans to kill several prominent personalities like Gill, Tytler and Bitta,” Delhi Police Commissioner KK Paul said today. “Besides these people, Hawara has also named some personalities based in Punjab,” Paul said. Paul refused to comment on whether the hit list had any connection with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in Delhi following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by two of her personal security guards. Tytler, along with other Congress leaders like Sajjan Kumar, Ajay Maken, RK Anand, was alleged to be involved in the mass killing of Sikhs in the capital during

the 1984 riots. He was indicted by independent commissions of inquiry, including the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the People’s Union for Democratic Rights and the Citizens’ Justice Committee.

Bitta, a Congress leader and chairman of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front, has been a target of Sikh separatists and had survived a 1993 attack in which nine were killed.

Gill became a household name across the country in the early 1990s when he was credited with crushing the Sikh separatist revolt in Punjab. However, Gill and his team have been accused of committing excesses in the Sikh-majority state during the drive against terrorism. “I cannot speculate on the reason behind their intention to kill these people at this stage. Interrogations are on and more details will be revealed later,” Paul said.