It is becoming an annual exercise to write 1 you about violations of Sikh human rights in Punjab and elsewhere in India. 1tis regretted that in the past petitions have elicited no response, Heartened by your recent stand on the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight allies by the Nigerian military junta; we have decided to try again.
We write about Jaswant Singh Khalra, General Secretary of the Human Rights Wing of the Akali Dal, the Sikh political party. Mr. Khalra is a well-known human rights activist and a lawyer. He was arrested by the police from his house at 9:15 am on September 6, 1999 and has not been seen since, In January 1995, Mr. Khalra was instrumental in filing a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court concerning the deaths of hundreds of unidentified individuals. The petitioners, the Human Rights Wing, produced records from cremation grounds in Amritsar District showing how several hundred “unclaimed” bodies had been cremated during 1992 and alleged that many of these were individuals who had “disappeared” following their arrest by Punjab police and whose fate was unknown, The Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that the families of the*‘disappeared” individuals should themselves file the petitions, Following the dismissal of the petition, Mr. Khalra was reportedly threatened by a senior member of the Punjab police, S.S.P. Ajit ‘Singh Sandhu, who stated that It “was easy to Make one more disappear.”
The above information is reproduced from Amnesty International “Urgent Action’ report headed: “Fear of Disappearance/Fear of Torture” Subject: Jaswant Singh Khalra, human rights activist” dated September 7, 1995. The update on Mr. Khalra’s case is that his whereabouts are still unknown (assuming he is alive) and he has not been charged with any offence or brought before the court.
The worrying aspect of the Khalra saga is that it is not an isolated incident. In Punjab such cases are legion, in 1992 another human rights activist and lawyer, Kulwant Singh Saini, his young wife and 15 months old son were killed by the police when Saini turned up at a police station to represent a client.
It was the family’s misfortune to accompany him to the police station, the police wanted no witnesses. Another two Sikh lawyers working in the human rights field have been killed since,
In addition well-known human rights activists, such as Mr. Ajit Singh Bains, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and our own Vice-president, Mr. Mohinder Singh Grewal, a well-known lawyer, have in the past been arrested and held in custody without charge and without being taken before a court. They were fortunate not to “disappear” as a hue and cry was raised by international human rights agencies on their behalf.
Indian constitution and the Indian Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes do provide safeguards against unacknowledged detentions. But these are of little use in practice. In such cases and particularly in cases of “disappearances,” cases brought before the courts move: extremely slowly and the police blatantly defy habeas corpus writs and other judicial process. Another aggravating factor is that the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr. Harcharan Singh Brar and the Director General of Punjab Police, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, always and work hand involve. Indeed Mr, Gill is the political overlord in the state and is responsible for thousands of extrajudicial killings.
We are aware that the official stand of Her Majesty’s Government is that Sikhs are not a persecuted group in India and that what happens to them is of no concern to the UK authorities. A more robust view is that the Sikhs are getting their just desserts; this ignores the fact that since the police are the sole arbiters of who is guilty and who is not guilty, it cannot be said with any confidence that hundreds of innocent Sikhs have not been killed by the police for all sorts of spurious reasons. While India has not won a gold medal on the: sports and athletics fields, Punjab police would surely win them a gold medal if one were to be awarded for brutality, torture, killings and disappearances in police custody. You are to be commended for your categorical condemnation of the Nigerian government on recent killings and for your support for Nigeria’s expulsion from the Commonwealth. In like vein, we urge you to intercede with the Indian authorities to ensure.
- That Mr. Khalra is released forthwith; alternatively that he is brought before the court and charged.
- That both Mr. Gill and SSP Sandhu are forthwith dismissed from the police force. Harjit Singh
President European Unit, International Human Rights Organization.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 22, 1995
