Major Baldev Singh Ghuman (retd) was gunned down last week in front of his home by plain clothed Indian government agents. Major Ghuman, a member of Simranjit Singh Mann’s inner cabinet, heard a knock at his front door. Mr. Ghuman opened the door only to be shot down in cold blood.
Such Indian government death squads are sent out to kill Sikh leaders concerned with human rights violations and those who attend the final rites of Sikh youth killed by police in extrajudicial killings. Operating on a daily basis these death squads are one of the Indian government’s most characteristic tactics for the oppression of Sikhs in Punjab. In civilian clothes and unmarked cars without tags, agents armed with automatic weapons will pick up Sikhs without a ‘warrant, bring them to one of the various torture centers throughout Punjab where they are kept in illegal detention, tortured and then killed. Without any record of the arrest the police simply cremate the body and escape responsibility.
In an effort to further intimidate the Sikhs, the Indian government has brought in army forces in the. Guise of national security guards who are leading a campaign of terror, randomly searching Sikh households in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur, arresting and killing whoever they please. This is clearly the repetition of such military offensives as Operation Blue star and Operation Wood Rose.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 6, 1990
