7. Reports of extrajudicial killings and “disappearances” (Part 1)

killing them in secret. In November 1987 the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances took up with the Indian Government 30 cases of men who had “disappeared” in Meerut in May 1987.

In a report on the events in Meerut published in November 1987 Amnesty International said the findings of inquiries should be made public and called for a review of the training and composition of the PAC so that members of minorities could be adequately represented. While refusing to comment on the Amnesty International report the Home Ministry in Delhi said that the composition of the PAC should be “more broad based”. More recently it has been reported that the PAC were receiving training in order to make them more sensitive to the problems of minorities and to safeguard the latter’s rights. The percentage of Muslims in the force is officially said to have been increased, although according to other reports there has been no substantial change in the structure and composition of the PAC.

Allegations of deliberate police killings have been made in Bihar, where landless labourers and marginal farmers – many of them from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – have been involved in disputes with landowners over such issues as land ownership and payment of minimum wages. Sometimes they have received the assistance of left-wing groups; in a few cases that of Naxalite groups using violent methods. For their part local landowners have frequently used private armies or senas, and there is evidence that they have sometimes worked in close collaboration with local politicians and police. In several instances the police and senas are reported to have deliberately killed numerous villagers – most of them belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes – in conflicts over land or wages. In a few cases, such as the killing in September 1987 of seven members of the Scheduled Castes in Kirichatra village, Jehanabad district, the police officials have been suspended from duty for failing to intervene to prevent killings by sena members.