By H Kaur, New York

The Indian regime’s propensity for framing people, lying and manipulating governments is too well known, it has twisted facts to suit its convenience and the Sikhs have often been the main victims in the past. Not that the Sikhs are exclusive targets, now the Kashmiri freedom fighters are also being harassed in a similar manner.

Last fortnight, they filed a complaint in a Brooklyn NY court alleging on the basis of a “confession” which they said had got from an alleged Kashmiri “terrorist” Shookat Bakshi, described as the “area commander” of the JKLF in which he is said to have Stated that he and others killed some people in Kashmir on the orders of Amanullah Khan.

Bakshi allegedly confessed, “I along with four others shot dead four air force officers and Doodarshan director Lasa Kaul in Srinagar under a directive from Amanullah Khan.” Human rights groups have pointed out that the Indian police routinely extract “confessions” under torture. This so called confession is certainly one such and we have to point out that it came at a rather convenient time for the government. It is to the credit of the magistrate that he rejected the case.

Unfortunately three years ago another magistrate, Ronald J Hedges in New Jersey, had accepted similar charges about Bhai Sukhwinder Singh and Bhai Ranjit Singh Gill, despite the fact they were shoddily prepared, on evidence which would have been rejected even in a normal Indian court, let alone a US court.

These two brilliant students, like many other Sikh youths, had been harassed on trumped up charges by the Punjab police. They were framed on one case of the alleged conspiracy to murder a police officer, only to be exonerated when a government appointed commission of enquiry investigated the charges.

Police harassment continues and they had to flee to what has been the traditional beacon of hope for the oppressed and the persecuted the land of Lady Liberty. The Indian government, perhaps eager to discredit the expatriate Sikhs who were pointing out the increasing human rights abuses of their brethren, sought to extradite them to India, in the full glare of media publicity. That they had committed no crime was immaterial to the ruling regime, charges were trumped up and they were said to have been involved in the murder conspiracy to kill General AS Vaidya, the army chief who had brutally invaded the Golden Temple in 1984 and Lalit Maken Member of Parliament who had been identified by human rights organizations as one of the prime instigators of the mayhem against the Sikhs in November 1984.  

For a time, it seemed that the wicked were winning. There were threatening notes to the magistrate, increased and stifling security, which turned the trail into a media circus and every Sikh here felt that he was being treated as a criminal by the ham handed authorities. Instead of focusing on the situation in Punjab, the repression which leads these two young Sikhs to flee the land of their birth, the media if a perverse manner painted the Sikhs as terrorists.

Truth at times broke through the mist of dis-information. Judy Russell, the attorney representing US and Indian governments at the trail was discovered by the FBI to have been the author of the threatening notes to the judges. Yet she got off very lightly and the two Sikhs are still in prison three years after their arrest.

A designated court in India dismissed the alleged conspiracy theory in Vaidya case, which was the basis of this extradition case yet they languish in prison,

An able team of lawyers including the famous civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, his associate Ronald Kuby and extradition expert Mary B Pike have jointly conducted a brilliant defense of their clients, and the Sikh community in US has come together as one man to Bhai Sukhminder Singh and Bhai help Ranjit Singh gill, the fraud of the Indian government has been exposed, yet they are still in jail! IS

THIS JUSTICE?

A review of the extradition proceedings is called for so that the evidence given against those who are sought to be extradited is examined by the US court before certifying the extradition. Extradition laws and treaties should not be used by repressive regimes, no matter how friendly to the US, to terrorize political and human right activists.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 18, 1990