NEW DELHI: Amnesty International, in a recent report on “en counter’ killings by the Punjab police, has revealed that in 169 “encounters’ reported in the Siate’s Press between January 1,1991 and February 28,1993, not a single member of the security force was killed. However, over266 persons, described as militants, were reportedly killed,

Demanding decisive action by the Government to investigate deaths in “encounters” and bring the perpetrators to justice, the interactional human rights organization has given case studies of three such deaths in Punjab. Describing torture as a” pervasive and daily routine” in every one of India’s 25 States, Amnesty said that of 77 cases of death due to alleged torture or medical neglect since 1985, admitted by the Government, only six guilty police officers have been convicted.

Though the Government had in statute investigations into 230 of the 455 cases raised by Amnesty before November 1992, it confirmed prima facie evidence in 77 cases of deaths in the custody of the police or paramilitary forces. This confirmed the “lack of de termination to bring the perpetrators of custodial deaths to justice,” the report said,

Of the three cases of ‘encounter’ deaths in Punjab, one involves Aviar Singh of Shatrana village in Patiala district, who was an Independent candidate in the postponed 1991 State Assembly election,

The demand for an investigation into his death on August 6,1991, was made by an Amnesty delegation in New Delhi in November 1992 but till March 1,1993, no enquiry was known to have been ordered.

Avtar whose brother, Jarnail Singh Shatrana, had reportedly joined the Khalistan Commando Force was taken away by the Station House Officer of Patran police station at 10 a.m. on July 25,1991,

For six days after his illegal detention, Avtar’s father Kehar Singh and elected heads of the village councils and other members of the community lodged protests with police in Patiala.

Kehar Singh was detained on July 31, to be released on August 6, the day the police told him that his son had been killed in an ‘en counter’ that morning.

According to Press reports, inspector Guam Singh claimed. that Avtar had told him that he was scheduled to meet some “top militants” that day, The police inspector was reported as saying that he accompanied Avtar to the proposed meeting, when an en counter took place in which Avtar was killed.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 11, 1993