RALEIGH: NG: Persecution and violation of human rights of the Sikhs in India continue unabated, Amnesty International, New York Times, London Observer, Globe and Mail, Indian Express and several other well-known institutions have come out with news of incredible happenings in India, For instance;
Item 1: Amnesty International, 26 page report, Aug 88
That security forces killed more than 70 Sikhs in fake or staged encounters between May 12 and August 22 last year in the Amritsar District . . . that 50 Sikhs were killed in similar encounters in the Faridkot district of Punjab between May 12 and July 29.” Amnesty International further reported that “the police massacred 80 Moslems villagers.” The report was sent to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who neither replied to it nor allowed the Amnesty International visit India to further investigate other charges of similar violations.
Item 2: The New York Times, August 10, 1988, page 2.
“There certainly has been too great a pattern of ‘encounter killings’ over the years for it to be dismissed as the odd, isolated case.” Sean Stiles, Amnesty International spokesman.
Item 3: The London Observer, 24 April, 1988 (Exclusive Report)
“Caches of arms, including rockets, are being smuggled into India from Pakistan—not by Sikh militants but by the Indian Secret Service,”
Item 4: Globe and Mail, May 3, 1988.
Bryan Johnson, special correspondent to Globe and Mail, with reference to Item 3 above reports “Mr. Bhagat, Delhi correspondent of The London Observer was given lessons on India’s ‘national interest’ for he was advised to drop the story until The London Observer published it. Johnson goes ‘on to report “No one neither the Indian government nor its opponents wants to hear the story And the embittered London Observer correspondent sees it as evidence that heart of the Indian press is hopelessly rotten.”
Item 5: Indian Express, June 19, 1988, page 8,
(Summary of the above report) Iqbal Singh, a young man arrested in 1984 was brutally tortured for months until released in 1986 as a result of court action by some sympathizers. Justice CS Tiwana of Punjab and Haryana High Court confirmed the “Ladda Kothi (where Iqbal Singh was kept) had been turned into a veritable torture chamber. He also discovered that Iqbal was subjected to torture.” Iqbal Singh was again abducted by the Indian Intelligence Agencies in an “unnumbered Matador van . . . carrying AK 47 rifles on 12 April 1928. The agency’s job is to “spread terror by abducting young Sikhs, torturing them, compelling them to point out ‘potential terrorists’ and then either releasing them or liquidating them in encounters.” Iqbal Singh survived the torture, and was released as a result of action by a human rights group which sent a habeus corpus to the Supreme Court. Iqbal Singh informed the press that “of those held in illegal custody, the police executed one or two young men every day.”
Item 6: The New York Times, March 22, 88, pages 1 & 22. India seems to interfere in the affairs of the Sikhs even in USA wherein fake threatening letters were sent by US Prosecuting Officer in New Jersey both to the hearing judge Ronald Hedges and herself (Judy Russell) probably, on instructions from Indian Government. Judy Russell had visited India to investigate the extradition case of two Sikhs. Shemeta number of senior Indian government officials. (A Churcil Release),
Article extracted from this publication >> September 30, 1988
