Bhat Yasir
On August 30, a group of young Sikhs flanked by a few Muslims gathered in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar. Sikhs, a micro-minority in Jammu Kashmir have found themselves gripped in fear again following the mysterious death of a 59-year-old Sikh from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Gurmeet Singh, a 59-year-old Government Engineer with the Roads and Building Department of Jammu Kashmir left his home around 9 P.M. on August 25. He told his wife that he was going for an official meeting and will return home soon– but he did not. Five days after this, his dead body was found drowned in Jhelum.
The death of Gurmeet Singh refreshed the wounds of the killing of Narendra Kaur in 2021, who was a government teacher, Rajinder Singh Bali, an employee of Doordarshan, who was abducted in 2008 and Jagjit Singh Sodhi from Food Corporation of India department who was abducted in 2004 .
Police said, “The body of missing Assistant Executive Engineer Gurmeet Singh had been found from a barrage in Lower Jhelum Hydel Project (LJHP) in Gantmulla in Baramulla district four days after he went missing.”
Following his disappearance, a series of protests had been staged by the minority community to urge the administration to trace Gurmeet Singh. Expressing concern over his disappearance, All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) had asked the LG administration to redouble its efforts in tracing out the missing Sikh engineer.
“It is imperative that serious efforts are taken to find out the missing engineer. So far the administration has failed to satiate the feelings of the family of Engineer Gurmeet and his family members are worried about his safety,” Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said in a statement issued to the press.
On August 29, the Sikh community from Baramulla gathered in the main town of the north Kashmir district and as they started marching towards the DC office, Gurmeet’s body was found triggering panic among the community. Locals including Muslims and Hindus have demanded an impartial enquiry into the death of the deceased engineer.
What happened on August 25?
Ravinder Kour, the wife of deceased engineer Gurmeet Singh said that on 25 August, he was normally working, first he attended a meeting in his office then in Dak Banglow, Baramulla and reached home around 5:30pm. “He had a cup of tea with family as he could not have lunch during the day due to work load. After spending a few hours with us, he left the home again saying that he has some official work,” said Mrs. Kour.
She said that initially assumed that her husband (Gurmeet Singh) was busy with official work, but as it got late in the night, she called her husband. “I thought he might be busy with official work so i did not contact him, but at 9 P.M., when I called, his phone it was switched off,” she said.
Following this, the family, their relatives started an intensive search for Gurmeet Singh. During the searches, his car was located near Eco park in Baramulla, besides the river Jhelum. “Inside the locked car, his phone was found in flight mode,” she claimed.
“If people at his office would have taken some pains and informed that he was missing, may be his life could have been saved, but they did not. Was he only important for work?” Ravinder Kour asked.
Claiming that the deceased had no stress from the family, she said, “There was something going on in the office. The people in the office were putting him under huge stress. He was even denied leaves, he forcefully submitted is leaves.”
Demanding a fair enquiry, she said that the case must be investigated properly by CBI so that the facts surrounding his death get clear. “It should be properly investigated what happened during this time, his car was parked near the eco park and phone was put on flight mode in the car,” she demanded.