FISHKILL, NY: The Sikh struggle will not be quelled at gunpoint and will have to be dealt with politically,” said DS, Gill, and General Secretary of the Punjab Human Rights Organization.

 He was addressing the congregation at the Mid-Hudson Sikh Cultural Society here on October 8Tracing the long standing pattern of discrimination by the federal government in India, he said that while rest of India was reorganized linguistically a truncated Punjabi Suba was achieved only after a protracted ten year struggle and even then the control of Bhakhra Dam and the capital city of Chandigarh were kept by the Center.

 Recounting the history of state terrorism in Punjab, he said the first fake encounters in the recent struggle was that of Kulwant Singh Nahgoke during the time when Darbara Singh was the Chief Minister, In January 1986 four manuscripts of the holy Guru Granth Sahib were burnt at NakodarAn investigation by the PHRO revealed that Congress I, Akali Dal and a local Shiv Sena leader were involved, When the Sikhs protested’ this outrageously sacrilegious act, “four Sikhs including Harminder Singh Sandhu convener of the All India Sikh Students Federation at Layallpur Khalsa College in Jalandhar, were killed in the discriminate police firing .

” Similarly a Union interior minister and a Punjab minister ordered a police firing on the people who had gathered for the protest led by Bimal Kaur Khalsa, the wife of late Bhai Beant Singh against the Satluj Yamuna Canal on 26 Match 1986Police bumt their own tents later to justify the act.

 On August 30, the same year 10 Sikhs were dragged out of their homes, tortured by the Police and killed in Dera Baba NanakA report by Punjab finance minister Balwant Singh and then interior minister Kamaljit Singh verified it but apparently on orders from Delhi, it was suppressed and none of the guilty cops punished, he said.

 Four Sikhs were killed by the police on 7 October 1987 in Sangrur jail and between 700 to 1000 Sikhs either disappeared or were killed in fake encounters by the police during the period between 12 May to 31 December 1987.

 Central Home Minister Bhajan Lal said at a public rally that Extremists (Sikhs) need not be brought to court,” thus denying them the due process of law and sanctioning their extra judicial murder, When the Punjab Sikh lawyers Council filed a case against Bhajan Lal, Magistrate JS Mender of Ludhiana issued a warrant against the accused He was transferred within three days to Amritsar and his property were Burt Bhajan Lal has obtained a stay in the case and the case is pending in the Supreme Court.

 DS Gill also spoke about “operation humiliation” in which Sikh women are harassed, humiliated in public, raped and even killed by the police. He referred to the translation of the report by Women’s Forum which was published in the World Sikh News.

Another gruesome case was investigated by the PHRO after that Report was published In May of 1989 a police Station House Officer threatened the father of one Gurmit Singh aged 22 that if Gummit Singh was not produced in the police his sisters would have to face the wrath of the cops. The father, like many others, feared for the life of Gurmit Singh at the hands of the police.

 

A few days later the elder daughter had just stepped out of her college when two men on a motorcycle tried to abduct her, but she screamed and people gathered. The men pulled out their identification cards and said they were police on a secret mission they threatened the girl with dire consequences and took her with them. She was gang raped by policemen on various occasions case was filed against the police in Ludhiana and it is still pending.

DS Gill also narrated the case of humiliation of the wife and daughter of Panthic Committee member Bhai Mahal Singh by the police The Mid Hudson Sikh Cultural Society honored him by bestowing a siropa.

DS Gill spoke after the bhog of an Akhand Path by the family of Harbhajan Singh Gill He was introduced to the congregation of the Mid Hudson Sikh Cultural Society by Jagjit Singh Mangat the President of Sikh Cultural Society, N.Y.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 13, 1989