LUDHIANA: There is no let-up in state repression in Punjab, despite the claim by the state chief minister and police chief that peace has been restored in the border state. The Indian law enforcing agencies have marked Khalistan protagonist’s relations, including defense lawyers, journalists and human rights and political activists for liquidation. Four Sikh lawyers, several human rights activists, three journalists and about a dozen religio-political leaders including the former Akal Takht Jathedar (the 1 highest temporal and spiritual Leader of the Sikhs) had clandestinely been eliminated in custody by the Indian security forces in Punjab, in the recent past.

It was on the night of November 26-27. 1992,  that the police picked up Mohinder Kaur, mother of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF. Chief General, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, from her village Panjwar in Amritsar district of the border state. According to local investigations, Mohinder Kaur was bundled into a police vehicle by a team comprising Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). Ashok Kumar, Police Inspector, Jagdip Singh and few others, when she was alonc at her residence. The local enquiries revealed that she was taken to Jhabal police station, which did not disclose her whereabouts to anyone. Bring chairman of a human rights organization (PHRO). Justice A. S. Bains (retired), filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking the release of Mohinder Kaur from illegal detention. Justice H.S. Bedi of the state high court in his order dated September 13, 1994 (Criminal Writ Petition No 290 of 1994), held that “it has been admitted that the police had visited the House of Mohinder Kaur to ascertain the whereabouts of her son Paramjit Singh” but had denied she was taken berinto custody.

“As the whereabouts of an innocent person arc a matter of great concem to all, I decm it proper that an enquiry be held into this matter. I, therefore, direct that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would cnquire into the matter and submit its report within 1 two months from now,” the high court judge ordered.

The petitioner through his counsel, Rajwinder Singh Bains, had stated that Mohinder Kaur thereafter was shifted from Jhabal to Manochahal police station, where she remained detained along with her son, who was already in the custody of the police. “In November 1993 she was removed from there to an unknown place by Sub-Inspector Raj Kumar of the Manochahal police station and is missing since then.”

The petition added that Arjan Singh, the father of Mohinder Kaur, had also been subjected to tenure and his arms and legs were broken by Surinder Pal Singh. Station House Officer (SHO). Shabal police station while he too was illegally detained there from September 9-11, 1993. Before ordering the CBI enquiry, Justice H.S.Bedi observed that “I had initially intended that the enquiry be got made through the Sessions Judge, Amritsar, but R.S. Bains, the learned counsel for the petitioner has urged that there is nobody in the family who would be able to pursue the case before the Sessions Judge as the father and son of Mohinder Kaur had already been terrorized into submission by the Punjab Police, and as such it would be more appropriate that somc independent agency be called upon to enquire into the matter.”

But, the CBI has failed to submit its report in the high court despite its specific orders. Rather, the CBI through state’s counsel on December 19, 1994, has sought six months time to complete the investigation.

International Human Rights Organization (IHRO) is conceded about disappearances in Punjab. It has documented hundreds of reports in which suspected militants and their sympathizers and relatives were kept in illegal custody, tortured and done to death. And the police later falsely claimed that they were killed in “encounters,” or “armed ambushes” or “escapes.” Some of the cases were taken to the higher judiciary by IHRO and individuals. In certain cases the judiciary did order enquiries to be made by CBI, but justice to the victims of repression remained elusive in most of the cases.

IHRO, therefore, appeals to wood governments, the United Nations and interactional public opinion, especially the human rights community, to take up this matter and exert pressure on the Government of India to save Mohinder Kaur’s life.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 13, 1995