CHANDIGARH, India: Mr. Sukhjinder Singh, former Punjab Minister, has urged Mr. Ujaggar Singh Sckhwan, Acting President of the Akali Dal, to convene an emergency meeting of the party to launch an action oriented programme to prevent “blatant murders by the security forces”.
In signed siatement released to the Press here, he said that the recent policy of the Punjab police to “kill Sikh youth in judicial custody” had created a stir in Sikh Circles. He said that the Killing of ‘Tarsem Singh Kohar and Sukhdev Singh and their companions was a clear case of “murder”. He urged judicial courts to take cognizance of “such gross violation of human rights”.
Mr, Sukhjinder Singh said that the stories “concocted by the police to cover up fake encounters had become notorious” and even people arrested for over a year and lodged in judicial custody were being “eliminated”, He said that even prisoners of war were not killed in this fashion.
He said the government had not learnt any lesson from the earlier failures of the “police solution”. By shutting its doors for negotiations, the government would lose its credibility even among the moderate Sikhs, he added. He also alleged that the government was adopting double standards, While Sikh freedom fighters were categorized into “A” and “‘B” categories, no such classification were done for those who indulged in the massacres at Delhi in November 1984. Such double standards has send a ‘wave of anger and resentment in the community, he added.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1987
