The US Congress also urged the American Secretary of State to raise Indian human Rights abuses with the Government of India
Meanwhile India on June 24 rejected the US amendment saying that it cast unwarranted slur on the Indian armed forces. This was stated by an External Affairs Ministry spokesman adding that Indian armed forces need no lessons from others in compassion morality and application of human rights and humanitarian standards.
There is (therefore) no question of the Government of India accepting any conditionality the spokesman underlined. He further explained that the US amendment actually referred to an exchange program in the name and style of international Military Training Program.
The amendment passed as part of the foreign aid authorization bill for 1992-93 spoke of the need for the Indian Armed forces to cultivate an enhanced understanding and appreciation of and the ability to apply international recognized human rights and humanitarian standards.
According to Indian Express June 25 report India has been chosen not to condemn this move on Capitol Hill in Washington because New Delhi does not wish to send signals that could be misunderstood by the White House It is said that the amendments viewed in New Delhi in the overall context of certain other developments such as the gathering opinion in the US against a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir
A psycho-political setback to India
What it really means is that $22 million in the US development aid will be withheld for the fiscal year 1992-93 unless India is able to prove its non-nuclear status. Although the sum is miniscule in relation to India’s economy yet it makes a lot of difference in the international field. It is certainly a psycho-political setback to India.
Wally Herger’s amendment to the foreign aid bill attaching conditions to the $345000 that India was set to receive through the international military education and training (IMET) program is a major setback to India.
Even as the US Congress continued censuring India for its violations of human rights there is no let-up in state repression in India. Tens of thousands of Indian security forces are deployed in Punjab. Thousands of Sikhs and non-Sikhs have been killed during the past few years. A large number of Sikh activists have been killed at the hands of the security forces. The paramilitary and the police forces have been responsible for grave human rights abuses. The Indian Army deployed in Punjab in garb of routine defence exercises often engages itself in encounters with the Sikhs. No one from the military or paramilitary forces responsible for extrajudicial actions has so far been punished.
No let-up in state repression
Despite protests by political groups and non-party organizations in Punjab violent activity at the hands of military paramilitary and police forces remains unchecked. Rather it has been stepped up in the wake of the proposed elections to Lok Sabha and Punjab Assembly. Security forces to excesses against civilians are on the increase. According to official figures 93 Sikh militants were killed at the hands of the security forces during January 1991. In the month of February this figure went up to 169. The killing of militants by the State was further stepped up in March and the Killed numbered 202. A monthly watch by PHRO
During April 1991 the number of Sikhs killed by the security forces in Punjab was 193. Of them 155 were shown killed in encounters with the police or security forces 29 in intergroup rivalry and nine by taking poison. The exact number of Sikhs and non-Sikhs killed by individual groups and the State-sponsored secret death squads known as Cats as well as counter-militants groups encouraged by the government (like Indian National Army Indian Lions Sarabha Brigade Red Brigade) cannot be determined by any voluntary organization. It needs investigations at the government level. PHRO has been demanding judicial enquiries into all incidents of violence since its inception in 1985 but to no avail.
PHRO during the month of April took up a number of cases for investigation. Its headquarters at Ludhiana received information that a joint police party from Samrala and Sahnewal police stations along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel over 200 in number led by Samrala Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP Surjit Singh Panny Inspectors Saroop Singh and R.N. Sharma raided and searched Kotgangurai village on the night of April 11991 at about 3 a.m. The villagers including women and children were slapped and beaten with rifle butts. The police picked up one Amrik Singh (son of Sardara Singh and rounded up ex-Sarpanch and Headmaster Har Bhagat Singh (60) Bhajan Singh (50) Gajjan Singh (62) Manjit Singh (20) and Pritam Singh (50). All persons except Amrik Singh were set free after interrogating them for three days. Amrik Singh was removed to an unknown place. In the meantime PHRO sent telegrams to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Punjab Home Secretary seeking their immediate intervention as the parent’s feared liquidation of their son Amrik Singh at the hands of the security forces. It also constituted a two-member team comprising Mohinder Singh Grewal and Anmol Singh Grewal to enquire into the matter. And the people of Kotgangurai organized themselves against this highhandedness of the police. They sent messages to about a dozen villages in the area. People from various villages collected at the Ludhiana Chandigarh highway and started blocking traffic at 10 a.m. at three different places near Katani Neel on and Tedhewal villages. The villagers in thousands jammed traffic in protest against ransacking the village and abduction of the Sikh youth by the security forces. It was on assurance of the Samrala DSP that Amrik Singh would be sent home in the evening the blockade was lifted.
On that very day (April 1) at 5 p.m. Amrik Singh was brought to his village by the police in a vehicle but was taken away after a round of the village The same night at 10 p.m. the police again invaded the village. The police vehicles remained moving around the village. The villagers remained indoors due to fear. During this period they heard a sound of bullets near the house of Amrik Singh. In the morning of April 2 they saw blood stains and pieces of flesh behind Amrik Singh’s house. They all were stunned fearing that Amrik Singh might have been killed by the police last night. The village panchayat and next-of-kin of Amrik Singh approached the Samrala Police to enquire about the boy. The police did not respond.
What killed the Brahman?
The PHRO investigation team visited the spot talked to the villagers including Sarpanch Bant Singh Jagjit Singh and Bhagat Singh and met Amrik Singh’s relatives. They recorded the statements of the witnesses and victims of police excesses. According to the investigation team it was Suresh Chanda special police officer (SPO) and not Amrik Singh who was accidently injured in the firing on that night. He was admitted to the Christian Medical College and Hospital Ludhiana where he succumbed to his injuries on April 5. On the contrary he was shown killed in an armed encounter with the militants the same night at Paut village near Jharr Sahib Gurdwara. Suresh Chand (son of JitRam)a Brahman belonged to Sehela village in Samrala subdivision of Ludhiana district.
A traffic hold-up pays off
The mass protest and the continued efforts by the villagers and PHRO proved effective and Amrik Singh was ultimately produced by the police in a court at Ludhiana on April 1Safterhe was kept in illegal custody for 14 days. He was harassed and brutally tortured in the police custody. At the moment he is in Nabha high security jail.
Meanwhile on April 8 sarpanches and panches of Ludhiana district decided to protest against the police repression in the villages as the ransacking of the Kotgangurai village was not the only isolated act by the security forces. This type of terror was let loose on dozens of villages in every district of Punjab in the past
Accordingly the villagers supported by various political and non-party groups sat on dharna (sit-in) on April 14 before the Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana protesting against the high-handedness of the police.
Comrades as police touts
Why was the terrtor let loose by the police on the people of Kotgangurai village? In the course of investigations by the PHRO it was revealed that members of the Punjab Dehati Mazdoor Union a pro-C.P.I. outfit from a nearby Bhoepur village were hand in glove with the Samrala Police Chief Surjit Singh Pannu. They are also known as the activists of Sarabha Brigade. They are working under the command of Comrade Amolak Singh the convenor of Anti-repression and Communalism Front Punjab These groups of the so-called Communists are encouraged by the State to confront the Sikh political activists who are advocating Khalistan The police equip them with arms and ammunition.
After receiving this information the PHRO team met several persons of Sanghe and Bhoepur villages including sarpanch Kartar Singh who confirmed that these “Comrades” had been terrorizing the people of the area and had direct links with DSP” Samrala. They fortified Dharamsala building in Bhoepur village and are operating from there as if it was a police post. They remain on watch-duty, check and search the passersby. They nab the Sikh youths particularly Amritdharis (baptized Sikhs), lock them in the Dharmsala and hand them over to the police. They sometimes themselves interrogate and torture the youth. Their local leaders are Ramdin, Jagroop, Mohni and Romesh. Several persons from the neighboring Bhaman village are also members of this group.
Police “cats” killed political activists
The people of the area alleged that on March 26,1991 the members of this group had killed Sarpanch Najjar Singh Mangat of Bhaman village, who was believed to be a sympathizer of the Sikh militants, and took responsibility in the name of Sarabha Brigade, The Bhindrawaale Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTKF) retaliated and killed the killers of the Sarpanch. They were identified as Ramji Dass, Babu Ram, Buta Ram and Amar (Singh) Dass. They were brought to funeral pyre of the Sarpanch and shot dead. Devinder Singh Paut of the BTKF took responsibility for the killing. After this incident the police have been supporting the violent activities of these “Communists”. They are at liberty to harm anyone. They have created a terror in the neighboring villages. They suspect that several persons of Kotgangurai village are harboring and aiding the BTKF activists belonging to Paut group. That was why the Kotgangurai village had been invaded and ransacked.
The people of the area are afraid of the Sarabha Brigade. They do not go near the Bhoepur village, the sub-divisional headquarters of the Brigade in Ludhiana district. The gravity of the situation may be gauged from the fact that many a people advised the PHRO team against visiting the Bhoepur village.
These gangs of “Communists” independently or in collaboration with the “Cats” have been engaged in killing suspected sympathizers and harbors of the Sikh activists. Earlier they killed a number of political activists also. Important among them are the killing of Sikh Students Federation (SSF) general secretary Satpal Singh Dhillon, Akali Dal (Mann) leader Major Baldev Singh Ghuman and Sant Sipahi Front leader Mohinder Singh Chaheru. They had shot at Master Amrik Singh, the district president of the Akali Dal, Jalandhar, and injured him seriously. In all the incidents they claimed responsibility in the assumed name of “Indian Lions”.
Rapists in militants’ garb
Apart from these State-sponsored vigilante groups there are other individual gangs which are actively indulging in violent actions including molestation and rape of young Sikh girls and women in the villages in the garb of militants. A media report from Amritsar by Romesh Vinayak revealed such a gang. According to the report, members of this gang had made a number of women victims of their lust. Three of them were arrested by the Majitha police on February 24 while two others were identified. The gang members used to move around Majitha town and made secluded farm houses their targets. Among the victims were a school girl and certain married women,
Certain militant organizations had also announced rewards on the heads of the gang members. The gang members used to take away girls from their houses at gunpoint and drop the name of top militant leader of the area to terrorize the family. After outraging their modesty they would send them back. They usually claimed themselves to be members of a militant group,
(To be continued)
Article extracted from this publication >> August 30, 1991
