CHANDIGARH: The dusk to dawn curfew in the 450 border villages of Punjab continues in spite of the police claim to having curbed militant activity in the State. A large number of militants have been killed and their kith and kin are under police surveillance.
There is still a deep seated re Sentiment in the rural population against the security forces. The police are ruthless in dealing with anybody suspected of being a potential threat, Jaswinder Singh of Majitha says, “Last week the police came and took away Sardool Singh, younger brother of a militant killed three months ago. He’s a student in Khalsa College and an AISSF activist. He came home after three days in police custody, his face swollen and body bruised, Sardool was contacted but would not say anything, and he fears he might be killed any day.
There are similar cases of police harassment in a large number of villages but people are too scared to speak out.
Meanwhile the police continue to kill suspected militants in false encounters and the main targets of the police are Sikh youth, especially those who have anything to do with those men who have been killed by the security.
The police have intensied their operations in the border areas; dusk to dawn curfew in 450 villages has become a fact of daily routine for the inhabitants. This curfew has been in imposition for the last nine years ever since the war between the government forces and the militants started after June 1984.
Meanwhile last week two young, college students Gurdip Sing hand Bakshish Singh were killed in Jagraon and both promptly dubbed as militants. In the same district Kulwant Singh another Sikh youth was killed for allegedly harboring militants.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 28, 1993
