It consisted of noted journalist B.G. Verghese and Vikram Rao. The third member, Jamuna Das Akhtar, dropped out from the team. The representatives of the coordination committee criticised the council report for confining its terms of reference only to the armed forces. A number of human rights organisations in their reports had attributed the majority of excesses to the paramilitary forces. Noted human rights activist, Justice V. M. Tarkunde, alleged that the press council committee simply ignored the existance of the earlier reports of the human rights organisations and refused even to meet or consult any of the known activists who worked on these reports.

PCI blamed for whitewashing state excesses

 Justice Tarkunde also accused the press council committee of basing its conclusions on limited investigations. He said its main source of information was government agencies, which could have twisted facts to suit their convenience.

He said the committee did not issue any public notice inviting information which could have been conducive to the fair conduct of the inquiry.

Similarly, the PCI team, which revisited Chandigarh on June 12 to update its earlier report on Punjab media, did not meet the victims of the state’s undeclared censorship on the Press in Punjab. The team only met certain pro-establishment newspaper editors, a few journalists and state officials.

Earlier, during its previous visit on January 8, 1991, the PCI team was briefed by Sukhdev Singh, convener of the Punjab Sikh Journalists Association, who pleaded for measures to ensure that the press functioned freely, independently and was not used as a tool of an oppressive state machinery as was the practice in Punjab at present.

The association convener asked the PCI team as to why it did not come to Punjab when Sikh journalists were persecuted, dismissed from service and put behind bars for years. In this connection, he cited the cases of Dalbir Singh (The Tribune), Jaspal Singh (UNI), Gulzar Singh Sandhu (Punjabi Tribune), Kuldip Singh Arora (UNI), Bharpur Singh Balbir (Aj Di Awaaz). Kanw3Ijit Kaur (Sampark), Mohinder

Singh (Akali Patrika), Surjit Singh Nanda (Qaumi Rajniti) and

registration of cases against Ajit and its editor Barjinder Singh and finally Sukhdev Singh (The Tribune). Sukhdev Singh added that he himself was dismissed from service without any show cause notice or enquiry and merely on the ground that he had written an article critical of the operation “Bluestar”.

When Verghese asked Sukhdev Singh for suggestions to improve the situation, the Sikh association convener said that in the first instance the PCI regulations should be amended to provide for enquiry into the State-sponsored cases against journalists other than those relating to moral turpitude.

Secondly, Sukhdev Singh asked the PCI team to recommend changes in the composition of the media managements such as The Tribune Trust, the Indian Express management, the PTI, UNI and the official media so that these organisations reflected the social variety. Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and Dalits were grossly under-represented in these media groups. Most of these organisations at present were the mouthpieces of Arya Samaj, RSS or other Hindu fundamentalist organisations, which came in frequent conflict with Sikhs and other social groups.

 PCI ignored Sikh journalists’ view

 Surprisingly the Sikh view point was totally ignored by the PC1 in its report. Instead, the PCI simply justified the government restrictions on the press in Punjab.

Even as the Government of India’s multi-pronged offensive which included the stepping up of military and police initiative and the straightjacketing of the Press, continued unabated, many people in Punjab, Sikh and Hindu, started openly sympathising with the victims of the state oppression, despite heavy odds.

Over 50,000 griefstricken Punjabis including a few hundred Hindus, defied the police to reach Kalakh village near Ahmedgarh in Sangrur district to join the last prayers offered in memory of Bhai Jagroop Singh, the slain militant who died on June 25, 1991 in a battle with the Indian security forces.

Earlier, a large number of Bhai Jagroop Singh’s admirers travelled by trucks and tractor-trailers to carry his last remains to Kiratpur Sahib in Ropar district to immerse them in the Sutlej.

Among those present on July 4 in Kalakh were a large number of women. A few thousand more men and women who could not join the last prayers were detained by the security forces around the village. According to reports, the police had detained about 1000 persons at the Jandiali bridge. There were tense moments as these people wanted to join the function to pay tributes to the Sikh hero but the police were determined not to allow them further movement towards Kalakh. Some persons travelled many miles on foot on the unusually hot day. A few hundred persons wanted to reach their destination and had to battle with the police which had put up a cordon around the village. In the process, at one such spot a few Sikhs sustained injuries as a result of the police lathicharge. Those injured were Shadi Singh Lohgarh, Jagdish Singh, Pritam Singh Narangwal, Balbir Singh, Surjan Singh sarpanch and Bibi Rajwinder Kaur and Manjit Kaur.

 The last rites ceremony disrupted

 The police cordon was so tight that even a Press party which went to the village to cover the function found it difficult to reach there. The Pressmen proceeded to the village after certain senior police officers agreed to see reason.

It was discovered in the village that the security forces had surrounded the place where the last rites ceremony was on. When a representative of the five-member panthic commi-ttee associated with Dr. Sohan Singh and others started reading a message, the police began to capture the stage in an effort at arresting the militant. But the participants resisted the police and even started a battle with it. S.P. (Operations) Mukhtiar Chand and S. P. (Detective) Sukhdev Singh Chhina were in the fore-front trying to arrest the militant. The militant immediately got down the stage and mingled with the public. But the policemen were still after him and they got hold of him. The public was so enraged that they beat back the policemen. The cops then thought it wise to let the militant go free. In the tussle the police used lathis and fired upon the public resulting in injuries to several persons.

The question is : why was Bhai Jagroop Singh so popular ? He was a dedicated militant. He fought for Khalistan. He never misused the gun. The extortionists were afraid of him. In many cases, according to the local people, Bhai Jagroop Singh intervened to ensure that extortionists returned the looted money to the victims. The victims in many cases were members of the Hindu community. In this manner he became popular with the Hindu community also. He held women in high esteem and never allowed any one to insult or humiliate them.

Bhai Kalakh belonged to the Khalistan Liberation Force (Budhsinghwala) and was its Lt General.

On June 30, a caravan of trucks, tractor-trailers and cars started from Kalakh village. At its head in a well decorated truck were the last remains of Bhai Kalakh to be immersed in the Sutlej river at Kiratpur Sahib. Thousands of men and wo¬men joined the procession as it advanced through the Malwa villages. The procession became about 2 km long at Rara Sahib.

 People pay tributes to dedicated militants

 The Indian security forces tried to stop the people from joining the procession and put up hurdles on Dhulkot road near Ahmedgarh and again on the Doom bridge of the canal near Rara Saheb. Sensing the mood of the public, the troops gave way.

It was clear the KLF leader was very popular among the people in the area in the same way as Bhai Jugraj Singh (19) was a hero of the Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike in Gurdaspur district. He too, was, Lt General of the KLF.

The police, on the other hand, claimed to have achieved a major success with the killing of Bhai Jagroop Singh in a fierce encounter at a farmhouse of one Nirmal Singh of Bunga village near Malerkotla. Also killed in the encounter was his companion Jangjit Singh Dakha. The police alleged that Bhai Jagroop Singh was feared in Ludhiana and Sangrur districts and he carried a reward of Rs 2 Lakh on his head. According to the police, he was responsible for more than 100 killings besides making attempts on the life of several VIPs including former Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Subodh Kant Sahay, Punjab Governor 0. P. Malhotra and DGP, D. S. Mangat.

As in Bhai Kalakh’s case, thousands of people including Sikh political activists were not allowed by the police and paramilitary forces to proceed to village Sangha on June 2 to participate in the Bhog ceremony of six Sikh devotees killed by the army on May 26. Several Akali leaders including Simranjit Singh Mann and Baldev Singh Sibia, president SGPC, along with hundreds of their supporters were detained by the police. Mann was taken into police custody. He and the others were later released after day-long detention.

 The Sikh congregation not allowed

 Similarly, the authorities thwarted attempts to hold a Martyrdom Day congregation by Sikh masses inside the Golden Temple complex on June 6 to commemorate the memory of those killed during the Indian Army invasion, code-named operation Bluestar in 1984.

Heavy security arrangements around the complex virtually sealed the holy shrine, denying access to the organisers and participants to the venue. Only aged persons, women and children were allowed to enter the complex after strict check¬ing at the entrances.

All political activists were detained by the security forces. Despite tight security, the Babbar Akali Dal Convener Kartar Singh Narang and a few others managed to sneak into the shrine. However, Narang’s bid to address a gathering of about 50 persons at the Akal Takhat was foiled by the policemen in plain clothes deployed in strength inside the holy place.

The militants’ call for a “Punjab Bandh” to observe the Ghallughara (holocaust) week, however, evoked massive response throughout Punjab on June 6. Most of the shops and offices remained closed. Transport operators kept their vehicles off the roads. Sikh people observed the week in their local gurdwaras.

All actions by the state and its law enforcing agencies, which were aimed at frustrating bhog ceremonies and religious congregations, were not only undemocratic but also disgraceful. The target appeared to be Sikh sensibilities. The aim was to thwart the well recognised religious ceremonies and rites.

 The holy Sikh Granth burnt

 Not only that, the holy “birs” of Cul u Granth Sahib were burnt at Ludhiana and Kot Shamir gurdwara in Bathinda district. The burning of the “birs” at two distant places was not one man’s act. “The barbarous acts were part of a conspiracy”, said the Union Minister of State, Subodh Kant Salley at Ludhiana on June 2, condemning the descretion of the holy Granth.

According to PHRO, this type of activity could be the handiwork of none else than those who had thrown cow tails in Hindu temples and packets of cigarettes in gurdwara sarovars (sacred pools) on the eve of the operation “Blue Star”. And these elements were active again. The state agencies on their part might have played a helpful role by not detecting such elements.

Not to talk of the police, the military, the paramilitary and the state intelligence agencies, which are engaged in the multi-pronged offensive against the Sikhs, the news media is not lacking behind. It started a public trial of a teacher in police custody as “Patiala-teacher authored JindaSukha letters”, “Prof reveals links with militants” or “Prof confesses links with militants” even before the professor was formally charged by the police, much less sentenced by the judiciary. The case in point was the manner in which Professor Sukhdial Singh, a teacher of the Punjabi University, Patiala, was tried by certain journalists and irresponsible media obviously at the instance of the district police.

When the professor was in police custody, a section of the media on May 31 reported that he made a “sensational disclosure” that he along with Prof Harinder Singh Mehboob and Prof Gurtaran Singh drafted the letters of Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Harjinder Singh Jinda, which were widely published in newspapers allegedly under pressure of the Babbar Khalsa International.

Quoting the Patiala SSP, S. K. Sharma, the media further reported that Prof Sukhdial Singh had confessed his links with militants including the chief of Akal Federation, Bhai Kanwar Singh. The media did not stop there. It further added that the professor had illicit relations with certain women.

This was a gross excess at the hands of the media against the professor who then was in police custody. Projecting the police view point without any verification, was contrary to professional ethics. Why did the Press Council of India not take note of this media assault against the professor ? Because they kept themselves engaged in justifying the curbs on the Press and whitewashing the state excesses against civilians especially the women, who were subjected to sexual abuses by armed forces in Kashmir. The PCI also did not take notice of the total black-out by the media of the PHRO report on the Sangha incident in which Sikh women were gangraped by the armed forces in May, 1991.

 Trial by media of a Sikh professor

 PHRO on December 10, 1990 in its report had said that the Patiala district administration was threatening to involve Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Dr. H. K. Manmohan Singh, Protessor Sukhdial Singh and others in some cases of violence just to appease certain Hindu organisations in the city.

According to PHRO team comprising D. S. Gill and Mohinder Singh Grewal, the district police started harassing the university administration, teachers and students following the killing of Sikh Students Federation (Daljit Singh), General Secretary, Bhai Nirrnal Singh Ninima in an alleged encounter by the Jalandhar police in the university campus on December 1.

“The district administration appears to be influenced by certain Hindu fundamentalist organisations like Hindu Shiv Sena which are said to be hostile to Prof Sukhdial Singh who had authored several books on Sikhs and their institutions including one on “The concept of Khalsa Raj” dedicated to the Panthic Committee, said the human rights activists.

Prof Sukhdial Singh, they added, is a committed Sikh and is not involved in any case of violence. His presence at the university campus is a source of inspiration and encouragement to those who want to preserve the sanctity of religious institutions.

The PHRO team visited the tension-ridden university campus on December 5. And according to its report, the Vice-Chancellor and Prof Singh were being victimised only because they had strongly resented against the storming of the university campus by hundreds of CRPF personnel and Jalandhar police led by S. P. (Operations), H. S. Dhillon at night on December 1.

The Warden, Prof Sukhdial Singh and resident students of Hostel No. 7 maintained that they saw no dead body in the campus but Bhai Nimma’s body was shown at Sadar Police Station in the morning. The police did pick-up three students from the hostel. They did not subscribe to the police version of the incident that Bhai Nimma had killed himself by taking cyanide after he was shot in his thigh as there were no blood stains on the spot, the report Addded.

 The police appease the Hindu bigots

The PHRO urged the Punjab Government to ask the district administration to desist from doing anything under pressure from the Hindu bigots.

But the Patiala police did not relent. At last it arrested Prof Sukhdial Singh along with three students on May 22 alleging that they were distributing sweets in the wake of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. They were tortured during the police custody. Booking the professor under these meaningless charges was nothing but a ploy to teach him a lesson for his religiopolitical views. It also provided an opportunity to the police to appease the right-wing Hindus who lost no time to shower praises on the Brahman district police chief for his “bravery”.

The trial by media set a trend for Punjab journalists to always blame         militants for each and every incident that occurred in the state. The media and the public opinion as a whole have been led by the police and other state agencies to believe that militant groups were the culprits. All known militant groups, on the other hand, disowned and denounced extortions and kidnappings. But the media continued to highlight the point that anti-militant offensive launched by the security forces should be further stepped up to checkmate the menace.

The PHRO investigations do not bear out the state agencies’ charge fully. A few specific instances collected by PHRO should indicate the shape of things. Robbers, extortionists and kidnappers who sometimes masquerade as militants are on the prowl.

The PHRO came across a very interesting case from Jalandhar city. A lone robber masquerading himself as Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) Chief General Paramjit Singh Panjwar was handed over to the police on May 29, 1991 by inmates of a house in the Garden Colony near Model Town. The imposter confessed before the police that he was lnderjit Singh of Nurmahal town in Jalandhar district. One toy pistol and a knife were recovered from him.

 Police help extortionists in militants’ garb

 Inderjit Singh, who has been looting people since October 1990, chose targets living in the localities of Model Town, Mota Singh Nagar, New Jawahar Nagar and Guru Gobind Singh Nagar. One victim, who lost Rs 2 lakh, gold ornaments, silk clothes and a dozen bottles of scotch whisky, said that he like others also received threat calls on telephone after the crime. His last victim, a family in the Garden Colony, however, grew suspicious of the robber’s tall claims and overpowered him.

A college lecturer, who managed to recover a part of the booty looted by the robber from his Model Town residence on May 4, 1991 after organising a chase of the robber with assistance of early morning walkers, said he personally reported the crime to the police division number 6 but they refused to register the case. The robber, he alleged, operated with police connivance.

Another report from Jalandhar revealed a gang of kidnappers who picked up one Navneen Kumar, son of an industrialist, on the intervening night of May 6-7, 1991. The police arrested six persons of the total seven persons involved in the incident. According to the police, Chanchal Singh, Vice-President, Jalandhar unit of Akali Dal (Mann), was directly involved in the kidnapping incident. The van (DDA¬3517) used in the kidnapping belonged to Chanchal Singh. He was a candidate for the proposed elections to Punjab Assembly from Jalandhar Contonment constituency.

After the kidnapping, the 17-year-old boy was taken to Gautam Nagar. At midnight, the boy was shifted to R-152 Model Town, the residence of one Pardeep Kumar Kaushal who is known to Chanchal Singh. Pardeep Kumar, too, was arrested. The kidnappers then rang up the industrialist to demand Rs 4 lakh as ransom in exchange of the boy, claiming themselves to be KCF activists. From the telephone call the place was located and the boy was recovered from the Model Town residence of Pardeep Kaushal.

 MP’s SPOs loot people posing as militants

 There is yet another case of looting and extortion from Barnala town in which involved were body guards of former M.P., Rajdev Singh. The Special Police Officers (SPOs) attached with Rajdev Singh used to pose as militants and brandish their security arms before robbing and extorting. They collected money and gold ornaments worth thousands of rupees. The police claimed to have recovered the booty.

Similarly, the Chandigarh police arrested on May 31, 1991 Jawahar Lal Jain, a famous jeweller of Chandigarh, and four other alleged extortionists for demanding money at gun point from N. S. Bindra, proprietor of B. R. C. Institute in sector-19, Chandigarh.

These cases clearly show that individuals, having no links with militants, were engaged in nefarious criminal activities, sometimes with the help of the police. But this should not necessarily mean that all militant organisations and their outfits are puritans. We in PHRO hold no brief for them. We categorically condemn state terrorism and innocent killings as