CHANDIGARH: Justice AS. Bains, Chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, said here on August 24 that he had no link with any political party or group other than the human rights and civil liberties organizations in India and abroad.
Ina signed statement, the retired Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court maintained that by denying him his passport, the Union government had infringed upon his basic rights as envisaged in the Constitution.
He said he had been raising his voice against the violation of human rights in Punjab and it was his Constitutional right to do so.
Justice Bains said he had been invited by the Deputy Secretary of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances at the Centre for Human Rights, United Nations Geneva on August 29. By denying him passport, he said, the Government was making a clumsy attempt to hide its “misdeeds.” But by this very act, the Government was exposing itself. He said it was the duty of every Punjabi to speak out against brutality of the State agencies and “terrorism of all kinds.” The PHRO wanted the Government and its police to function in accordance with law. Only then it would have the moral strength to gain the support of the people, he added.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 8, 1989
