Patti Cremation Ground

The Patti cremation ground is the cremation ground of the Patti municipal committee, in the town of Patti, now in Tarn Taran district. It is one of three grounds in the old Amritsar district whose records Jaswant Singh Khalra examined in 1994 and 1995, with Durgiana Mandir in Amritsar and the one at Tarn Taran. Patti is the ground where he was able to read the register.

What the record says

• The register. Reduced to Ashes, the 2003 report of the Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab, says Khalra went through the wood purchase register kept at Patti, which noted the identity and address of the dead, the date of cremation and the name of the person who cremated. The book says it showed that police had burnt 538 bodies, declared "unidentified" or "unclaimed", from January 1991 to October 1994 (p. 54).
• 16 January 1995. The press note signed by Khalra and Jaspal Singh Dhillon said 400 unclaimed bodies had been brought to the Patti municipal committee's cremation ground, from places as far off as Khalra (40 km), Kairon (10 km), Harike (15 km), Valtoha (30 km) and "Bhiki" (25 km), working from the firewood registers for 1991 and 1992. The book's two figures differ: 538 for January 1991 to October 1994, and 400 in the note (pp. 54, 603).
• In court. The petition of the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab put the wood purchase records of Patti and Durgiana Mandir before the Supreme Court (p. 5).
• In the CBI's lists. The first two cremations on the CBI's identified list for the Tarn Taran police district were carried out by Verowal and Patti police stations, on 6 July and 21 July 1984 (p. 161).
• Families. The book's case summaries show police of the Bhikhiwind, Valtoha and Harike stations cremating at Patti. It says the relatives of Hardev Singh reached the ground the morning after he was reported killed in an encounter but did not dare approach the pyre while policemen were still there, and collected the ashes after they left (p. 255). It says villagers looking for Satinder Singh arrived as police lit a pyre and that the next day newspapers, quoting police sources, said he had taken cyanide (p. 490). For three men whose relatives say they took the bodies home, it says the CBI's list shows police burning them at Patti (p. 212).

What it means today. The register at Patti is one of the records behind the case that began with Khalra's press note. The book says armed commandos of the Tarn Taran police abducted Khalra from outside his house on 6 September 1995, and that on 15 November 1995 the Supreme Court told the CBI to inquire into his abduction and into the facts in his press note (pp. IX to X). The petition before the Court described the Patti and Durgiana Mandir papers as records of wood bought by police officials at the two grounds.