NEW DELHI: JF. Ribeiro, advisor to the Punjab Governor at a press conference on July 30 at Amritsar, has admitted that under his stewardship as Director General of Police of Punjab, in connivance with the people who mattered, the police themselves had raised an undercover hit squad in an effort to infiltrate militant Sikh organizations, He also confessed that their operation had gone out of their hands and that the police officers had lost control over their men, who were often caught indulging in illegal activities. Ribeiro sought to justify these crimes of disguised police agents by stating that in order to fight the militant movement, police all over the world did the same thing and perhaps the disguised police agents in Punjab did unwanted things only to gain access to the militants. He also confessed that the drawbacks of these hit squads outweigh their advantages which was the reason why he ordered such operations stopped, after taking over as advisor to governor Punjab.

Commenting on these gruesome and sensational disclosures the Janekta Manch president, Rajinder Pun, a well-known journalist said this is the first time that a senior most government functionary and official spokesman has confessed to terrorist crimes committed by police agents themselves. In other words, the government took the law in their own hands and indulged in state terrorism and crimes in order to discredit Sikh militants and infiltrate their ranks, Puri added.

Ribeiro has not disclosed, how many crimes were committed by these hit squads raised by the police or the nature of those illegal activities. He has not disclosed what happened to those hit squads which went out of their control and whether any of these operatives were later prosecuted. Indeed, Ribeiro himself by his own admission sanctioned these operations and is open to prosecution. This is a matter of utmost gravity. The government has admitted to deliberately unleashing state terrorism. For whatever reasons now being produced merely after Ribeiro’s admission the matter cannot be allowed to rest.

The Jan Ekta Manch therefore demands that in the light of Ribeiro’s disclosures the authorities should immediately take the following steps.

  1. The Punjab Governor, S.S. Ray, and his advisor resign from their posts.
  2. The president institute, forthwith, a high-level commission of inquiry headed by the sitting judge of Supreme Court to investigate the nature and full extent of the crimes of the Punjab government.
  3. The government publish a white paper within one month listing these crimes and the names Of those who perpetrated them.
  4. All officers be prosecuted who were involved in the state inspired illegal activities and also their agents who committed these. crimes under government orders.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 11, 1989