CHANDIGARH: The Movement against State Repression has asked the Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, to supply data about militants and persons detained under the TADA, after the promulgation of the Act, in 1985.
In a letter to the Chief Minister the MASR leaders wanted to know the details about the persons lodged in various jails in and outside the state, after being arrested in Punjab. They also wanted to know the number of persons who, on being granted bail by a competent authority, were rearrested immediately after their release, in some other case interrogated and sent back to prisons. Information was sought by them about detainees who declined to leave jails, despite granting of bail to them, on the ground of safety outside the prison walls,
The MASR leaders said a large number of persons were illegally detained at various police stations, paramilitary forces camps and interrogation centers. They also sought information on how many interrogation camps were sculpt in Punjab and whether these camps were authorized or purely police establishments and whether any proper record was maintained of the suspects taken to interrogation centers and their relatives informed about their whereabouts. They said the government should set up a commission comprising High Court judges or a senior [AS officer, senior medical officer and human rights activists to go into the cases of the detained persons. The team should visit ail prisons, police stations and interrogation centers for an on-the-spot verification and submit its report in specified time, they demanded, The human rights leaders asked the Chief minister to order proper identification of bodies of unidentified militants and publication of their photographs in reputed newspapers. According to them, of the 131 militants killed in Bhatinda district in 1991, as many as 83 were unidentified even in the government records, giving credence to the popular view that suspects from one area were taken to the other to be killed in fake encounters to avoid identification, Another request made in the letter was for the publication of the list of known militants as this would prevent the police from killing innocent persons and then declaring them militants.
This would also enable the people harassed by the police on charges of harboring militants to know if the persons enjoying their hospitality were militants. They drew the attention of Beant Singh to reports that policemen in the garb of militants forcibly sought food and shelter from villagers and later extorted money from them, The letter added that in a democracy, a Chief Minister was expected to furnish this information to the citizens of the country.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992
