OTTAWA: Herb Dhaliwal, Member of Parliament for Vancouver South, is lobbying to ‘obtain the release of Jaswant Singh Khalra, ‘an Indian human rights activist and member of the Akali Dal political party, who was arrested by Indian police forces in Amritsar ‘on September 6th. Khalra was taken without warning at 9:15 am on Wednesday while washing his car. His family has not been informed of his offence or his whereabouts, To date he has not been charged or brought before a judge. Both Dhaliwal and Khalra were guest speakers at a dinner held in Mawa and attended by many Members of Parliament and members of the Diplomatic Corps. During his speech Khalra spoke of the need for due process and for democratic freedoms in the battle to eliminate India’s human rights violations Khar praised Canada’s political and religious freedoms as well as our use of the democratic process to resolve disputes. Dhaliwal is deeply concerned about Khalra’s safety and to lobbying Ins n his efforts to obtain Khalra’s colleagues actively to gain their support it release, “Jaswant Khalra sa soft spoken and thoughtful man. He has dedicated himself to raising the awareness of human rights violations in India” he said. “To the best of my knowledge he has advocated only peaceful and freedom of expression as forms of protest against India’s human rights record.” “Worry that Mr. Khalra may himself become one of those prisoners who is held indefinitely without charge, whose whereabouts become “unknown or worse, who simply ‘disappears’ while in police custody. I believe that time is of the essence. I must do whatever I can in conjunction with my colleagues to urge the Indian government to release Mr. Khalra. I fear that if we remain silent it may be too late.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1995
