NEW DELHI: Indian security forces have used increasingly brutal methods to stem the Sikh insurgency in Punjab including summary killings torture and prolonged detention without trial a human rights group said Aug.25
On the other side the militants fighting for an independent Sikh State have killed kidnapped and. assaulted civilians and murdered political leaders the rights group Asia Watch said. The 138-page report Punjab in Crisis was compiled during a fact finding mission late last year the first by an international group the Punjab Asia Watch said. it charged that human rights abuses by the security forces were part of a deliberate government policy of repression.
By failing to address rampant abuses by the security forces the authorities have encouraged –
Their violence by the militants and criminal gangs it said.
Last year police reported nearly 4000 deaths. More than 3400 have been killed so far this year at least half of them civilians and many of them Sikhs police reports said
Indians forces have killed civilians and militants in staged Encounters in which police allepe that they came under attack by militants. In most cases however the victims have simply been murdered in police custody Asia Watch said. Torture is practiced routinely in police stations prisons and detention camps the report said.
Methods include prolonged beatings pulling a victim’s legs far apart rotating heavy wooden or metal rollers over the thighs applying electric shocks to the genitals tying the victim’s hands behind his back and suspending him from the ceiling and rape or threats of molestation it said.
During house-to-house searches security forces routinely assault and threaten civilians. In some cases all the male residents of entire villages have been subjected to beatings and other forms of assault.
Under special legislation India can hold detainees for up to two years without trial. The number of those detained runs into the thousands the report said.
The corruption endemic to the Indian police system has also played its part. Police have routinely detained tortured and killed persons in pursuit of bribery and extortion.
The group also condemned violence by Sikh militants against civilians. In May the London-based human rights group Amnesty International accused India of allowing its security forces to commit rampant human rights abuses in Punjab.
Indian officials declined immediate comment on the Asia Watch report. In the past it has said its legal system provides adequate protection and remedies if abuses occur. The insurgency worsened in June 1984 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the army to root out armed militants from the Golden Temple Sikhdom’s holiest shrine. About 1000 troops and militants were killed. That October Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards.
DHAKA: More than 100 fishermen were missing after 10 motorized boats capsized in the bay of Bengal under the influence of strong winds caused by a low depression in the last two days press reports said here Saturday. While the body of one fisherman was pulled out on Friday evening 50 others were rescued in the last two days. However many boats had not returned to the shore till Friday night the reports said. Each of the boats which had gone out of the deep sea for fishing carried 16 to 17 fishermen the report said
Article extracted from this publication >> August 30, 1991
