Manjit Kaur, the widow of Nirwair Singh and his mother Prakash Kaur live in village Balewal in the Gurdaspur District. Nirwair Singh was the Granthi of Gurdwara Sahidan in Amritsar and had been killed by the bullets of Amritsar SSP Azhaar Alam’s “Black Cats” at the steps of the Gurdwara itself. Manjit Kaur was with him at that time. When she ran after the assailants they battered her badly with their rifle butts. On September 24, it was reported that a terrorist had been killed in gang rivalry. Nirwair Singh’s younger brother, Kulwant Singh was absconding.

How can one classify the misery and suffering of fellow beings? All the 25 cases documented in the White Paper represent enormous and intolerable suffering, and yet they represent only a tip of a very nasty iceberg. There seems to be almost no limit to the depths of beastlity which a person can subject other human beings to. It is said that civilizations and societies can be gauged from the manner in which they treat their women. The abominable manners in which women of Punjab are harassed, humiliated, raped and tortured further illustrate the terrible treatment of the people of the state.

They come from all walks of life, Rajinder Kaur, a torture victim is now a member of India Parliament, some victims were school teachers, and some worked in banks, and most were home makers.

Gurmeet Kaur was left a cripple after surviving severe torture for eight days and finally scrummed to her injuries after the police dumped her home.

Amarjit Kaur says, “the police forced my brother to beat me.. I was tortured badly for 18 days. They would tie my hands behind my back and roll a heavy wooden roller on my thighs, some police men stood on the roller while others rolled it, making me scream in agony till I fainted. When I came back to my senses they would repeat it. The muscles of my thighs have been ripped.

When Manjit Kaur was almost senseless after one and a half hours of torture they dragged her and threw her on the body of her brother in law Dilbagh Singh and taunted, “Now get your Khalistan.”

Sukhwinder Kaur recounts, “‘the police and BSF started beating us they struck me twice with belts and they kicked, slapped, and abused me all the while using abusive and vulgar language. The police accused us of sleeping with them (the militants).

What are we to do? Don’t we have any self-respect? What is our crime? When they demanded food and shelter at gunpoint, how could we refuse? This incident took place in Dec 1988. Those days were very cold. The police forced the men out of the house and asked them to strip. We were then forced to sit with them. You know, I usually keep my head averted from my father in law. I felt very embarrassed but was helpless. After about 2 2 1/2 hours the men were allowed to put on their clothes. Then they took my father in law, another relative, a guest and myself to the police station. I was detained for 5 days.

In Batala, the policemen kept beating the two young girls Savinder Kaur and Narinder Kaur was wooden staffs till they were screaming and thrashing in agony. When they could not get the girls to say what they wanted, the police started using the heavy wooden rollers which they rolled on their thighs while some hefty men stood on it, as a result of which the girls fainted. When they came to their senses, the policemen brought some salt from the kitchen which they sprinkled in their eyes. This caused the girls intense agony. The pleas of their bedridden sister for mercy were answered with a barrage of filthy abuses. The girls were then suspended upside down from a beam on the roof, till their blood vessels almost burst. They would tell Narinder that their sister had admitted that terrorists came to their home and vice versa, whereas in fact neither said anything to that effect. The girls said they didn’t know anyone and neither did their family give anyone shelter.

Two young girls, Sarabjit Kaur (14 years) & Salvinder Kaur (13 years) of Bham village in Batala, were abducted by two policemen on June 11, 1989. After being raped for a few days they killed them and tried to hide the bodies so as not to leave any evidence.

We can only give a few of the cases which have been documented in the report. They are horrifying enough, but the reality is much nastier.

Gurmit Kaur Laharka the gang rape and other inhuman atrocities committed by the police of Kathu Nangal police station in Majitha police district, against the 10th grade student Gurmit Kaur on June 22, 1989 is a hair raising matter.

Gurmit Kaur says that the police said that she would have to face serious repercussions if she ever opened her mouth about this, and as a result of her fear she kept quiet for some time. Police have put her father Swaran Singh and her brother Satnam Singh in Amritsar jail on grounds of ‘sheltering terrorists.” When Gurmit Kaur and her sister Paramjit Kaur came back in the evening after meeting her father in jail on April 21 a police party came from the Kathu Nangal police station and told them that the Deputy Commissioner wanted to see them since he wanted to record their statements. That day they took the elder sister Paramjit Kaur to the police station and kept on questioning her about which terrorists they were sheltering. She said none. She was released the next day but the police took her sister Gurmit Kaur with them.

At the police station Gurmit Kaur was badly tortured. She was beaten up, hung upside down, and then stripped and left in the veranda of police station. So much so that salt and chilies’ were put into her private parts. At night she was taken to a room in the police station, her eyes were tied up with a cloth and she was raped by 45 policemen. Gurmit Kaur fell unconscious during this and when she came to her senses, she realized that she was lying stark naked,

She was again hung upside down and beaten the next day after which she again became unconscious. During this torture police men kept on asking her which extremists she knew, who came to their home and whether she would help them in capture them. Gurmit Kaur answered, “‘when I don’t even know anyone, how can I get them captured.” At last she was released on April 24 without any charges being filed against her. When she was released, Gurmit Kaur was in such a bad condition that she could not even walk. On seeing her state some villagers got her admitted to the hospital in Dhaliwal and she had to be hospitalized for a number of days in order to recover physically. Who can say when the scars of the Psychology trauma suffered by her and her family will heal?

Article extracted from this publication >> April 6, 1990