India’s ruling party made a hue & cry against President Clinton’s statement on the violation of Sikhs human rights in Punjab a few weeks ago. But what happened recently in Chandigarh when a Sikh militant, Bhai Kanwar Singh, stood up to Indian police’s blackmail, only confirmed what the U.S. President had stated. Bhai Kanwar Singh’s daring statement at a press conference in presence of K.P.S.Gill should serve as an eye-opener to the world about how India treats Sikhs.
Bhai Kanwar Singh headed Akal Federation, a minor militant outfit. He declared that he was arrested by the Indian police about 10 months ago from Gurjarat but was never acknowledged as arrested. He was kept in undeclared, illegal police custody and was repeatedly tortured K.P.S. Gill admitted to the media persons that Bhai Kanwar Singh was not involved in any “criminal activity. But, then, why was he tortured? According to Bhai Kanwar Singh, the police officers wanted him to appear in public to declare that he had “surrender” to the Indian police and to touch K.P.S.Gill’s feet.
Bhai Kanwar Singh surprised and shocked the police when he got up to declare that he would prefer death to touch Gill’s feet to signify his surrender to India instead, he asserted, he stood for Khalistan and would continue with his mission. The shell shocked K.P.S.Gill failed to make Bhai Kanwar Singh discontinue his speech to the media. During his brief statement, the militant leader made a series of statements that were highly revealing to the media and completely shocking to the police officers present there. Bhai Kanwar Singh disclosed that his pregnant wife and their five-year-old son were in the custody of the police.
They had been arrested by the police from Baru Sahib Sikh academy in Himachal Pradesh. Both husband and wife were put together and were tortured in each other’s presence for months.
The militant also claimed that superintendent of police, Ajit Singh Sandhu, who now is chief of Ropar district police, threatened him with dire consequences if he did not cooperate with the police in the surrender and knee-touching drama. Sandhu was quoted by the militant as telling him that the former had killed more than 500 Sikh youths and that he, too, would be done away with if he did not yield. Bhai Kanwar Singh likened K.P.S.Gill to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and declared in his presence that he would not touch his feet nor” surrender” to the tyrant officer.
Bhai Kanwar Singh (who said he had spent nine years in Pakistan) exposed Pakistan and its intelligence outfit, I.S.L. for converting Sikh freedom fighters into terrorists. His view was thar Pakistan was no friend of Sikhs. Instead, that country was interested in weakening the Sikh movement and isolating it from the public to avenge the surrender of Pak army in east Pakistan to Sikh army generals of India. Bhai Kanwar Singh disclosed that the IS.I. Agents misbehaved with those Sikh leaders who were in favor of conducting the struggle along political lines and were not inclined to indulge in mass killings of Hindus in Indian Punjab and elsewhere.
He claimed that Bhai Atinderpal Singh was beaten up in a Pak jail for holding such views. Also, Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, too, held similar opinions. Once L.S.I. agents took him to the Indo-Pak border threatening to push him into India as the Indian Border security force personnel looked on. Baba Manochahal had to do a lot of explaining to I.S.I. to go back to Pakistan Bhai Kanwar Singh also revealed that he came back to India in 1991 when the then Prime Minister Chander Shekhar took initiative for talks with Sikh militant groups. Yet another disclosure Bhai Kanwar Singh made was that his arrest was in the knowledge of Jathedar of Akal Takhat and other Akali leaders but none raised their voice against India. He, in fact, wrote letters to Acting Akal Takhat Jathedar but he paid no heed to his illegal detention.
There is hardly any doubt about the veracity of Bhai Kanwar Singh’s statements. His detention 10 months ago is in the knowledge of an Amritsar advocate, Kailash Samuel, who had made a representation to the Indian government in May last year seeking the militant’s release. The fact of the illegal arrest of Bhai Kanwar Singh’s wife, Kulbir Kaur, was confirmed by a correspondent of Ajit” who reported from Ropar on March 31.1994, that she was brought to the Ropar hospital by the police bleeding with injuries of police torture. The Jouranlist spoke briefly to Kulbir Kaur who confirmed not only her torture but also her illegal arrest as early as on May 13. 1993. from Baru Sahib in Himachal Pradesh. Jathedar Manjit Singh of Akal Takhat and SGPC. President Gurcharan Singh Tohra have not denied Bhai Kanwar Singh’s charges of Sikh leaders’ silence on the human rights issue. Bhai Kanwar Singh’s statements expose India as a fascist state where political prisoners even without involvement in any violence are treated inhumanly, where tinpot dictators like KP.S.Gill enact farcical dramas by the helpless prisoners to bolster up the image of the Indian state, where women and even the five-year olds are not spared torture and where the state not only does not punish the wrong-doing by security forces but encourages and towards them. It is also notable that the offers of negotiations are made by responsible public men such as prime ministers merely to trap their victims. Equally, noteworthy is the unsavory role Pakistan has played in dealing with Sikh affairs. Bhai Kanwar Singh’s statements also disclose Akal Takhat Jathedar as a person without sensitivity and totally unsuitable to his assignment. All in all, President Clinton stands vindicated except for his claim that India has increasingly started paying att the human rights issues in Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 8, 1994
