NAINITAL: Arjun Singh 78 of Bhajwanagle village has many scars to show for his brush with the Uttar Pradesh police: A broken arms a ransacked shop and a deep distrust for authority.

Arjun Singh was one of the several innocents brutalized after a bomb-blast left six policemen dead in Nainital district on September 23.

He has no police record and if there was any reason for targeting him it was merely the fact that he was a Sikh settled in the terrorist infested Terai.

This is not an isolated instance of police high-handedness almost every village in their district has similar tales to recount. A few kilometers away at the Bhanskhedi village Jamail Singh an ordinary farmer breaks down as he recalls the humiliation that his family had subjected to at the hands of the local police. “I have never seen the face of a terrorist but I was beaten black and blue till passed out on charges of having fed terrorists I was told that if I wanted to become a man I would have to shave off my hair and warned that we would be hounded out till we left this area” he says.

But for many Sikhs like Jarnail Singh the Terai is the only home that they know. It was here 45 years ago that these refugees from Pakistan were settled at the invitation of the late Govind Ballabh Paht shortly after Independence. “Where do we go from here?” Jamail Singh asks. His neighbor Jai Singh adds “We would rather die than leave.”

In the predominantly agricultural district of Nainital the Sikhs alone account for over 80% of the farming community. In fact most of them have seen prosperity by the sheer dint of hard work and have all the process transformed the economy of the region. Well integrated with the local residents these Sikhs have never faced that kind of alienation ever before -not even at the height of communal tension elsewhere in the country.

It was only a couple of years ago when the terrorist activities spilled over from Punjab and then the Pilibhit area that the authorities started dealing with them as a separate entity. Most of them feel tapped today caught in a bind between the ruthless police force of the state and the terrorists who continue to make demands on them at gunpoint. Few are prepared to leave giving up everything that they have strived for all these years.

But there are some who are not as determined to stick it out like Jai Singh and Jamail Singh Charan Singh a wealthy landlord in the adjoining village for example has already dispatched his wife and children to Chandigarh and is exploring the possibility of selling his land and settling in Punjab.

“The situation of police atrocities may not be any different there but at last we will not be threatened and given an ultimatum to leave” he reasons. Psychologically scarred and shattered in spirit the Sikhs here seek succor in the fact that their neighbors help them out each time they arc harassed. Says Mahinder Singh: “We have lived in perfect harmony with the hanas of this area even today it is they who shelter our women and children when the police descend on us” Others have quietly cut their hair hoping that this might save them the indignities that accompany each visit by the local police.

At the Bajkheda village there is a flurry of activity as soon the inhabitants hear this correspondent’s vehicle approaching. Mistaking it for a police jeep all the young men disappear into the adjoining fields in a flash so apprehensive are they of the high-handedness of the local police. Pritam Singh however is too old to even attempt escaping.

“I have never even visited a police district but each time the police comes to this village lam a target of their wrath against the Sikhs the last time they beat me till I fainted Tell me who do I complain to the police?” he asks poignantly.

Says Rajender Singh senior citizen freedom fighter and youngest brother of the legendary Shaheed Bhagat Singh who was also among those who migrated to this area. “The police must accept responsibility for the damage they have done to the psyche of the Sikhs here. This community is so seared here that they have lost their ability to protest this is not the Independence we had fought for. It is not fair for us to treat each Sikh as a terrorist.” He demands that a CBI probe be ordered into the police atrocities here and almost everyone in the region seems to echo his sentiments.

The senior police officials meanwhile remain smug in their silence. The SSPS.N.Singh does admit to a few excesses but for the most part insists that the police have acted responsibly in tackling the law and order problem in the region. His subordinate Vijay Kumar ads: “The police are essentially equipped to handle law and order not terrorism.”

Article extracted from this publication >> December 4, 1992