CHANDIGARH: Those advocating human rights of Sikhs in Punjab are increasingly becoming targets of Indian security agencies in several ways.

The Chandigarh police alleged “conspiracy” to create Khalistan against Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Jaspreet Singh Gill arrested him under TADA and obtained police remand for him for 13 days. But advocates of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and of the Chandigarh district courts struck work for two days protesting against the arrest and seeking his immediate release.

Additional district judge M.S.Lubana set free the advocate on bail after hearing Indian government counsel Anand Swaroop and Som Nath Sharma on the one hand and advocate’ s counsel Amrjit Singh and N.S. Minhas on the other.

India’s charges against Gill were that he was in contact with militant leaders Harbhajan Singh Mand Wadhawa Singh Talwinder Singh Devpal Singh Monohar Singh Shiraand Pritam Singh who kept their weapons at the advocate’ s Sector J] house. The police layed certain cassettes to claim proof of the advocate’s links and his writings but the judge felt that those documents did not advance the government’s cause.

A former Punjab minister associated with Congress (I) Dilbagh Singh Daleke who has been pleading for the victimized Sikh youths of Amritsar district last week led hundreds of village panches and sarpanches to protest against the actions of the Tarn Taran district police. But the police hit back by alleging that Daleke conspired with certain militants to kill Tarn Taran district police Chief Narinderpal Singh.

The allegation according to the police is that Daleke had a meeting with Satnam Singh Satta of Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan at Santokh Singh’ s house in Janamastpura village on Aug.29. Others present were Bantalak Singh a former sarpanch of Bakipur village and six militants Satta was later killed in an encounter

At the meeting according to the police Daleke asked militants to concentrate on “good work” and stated that he had adopted Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Sangha the slain chief of BTFK as his son and earned the wrath of the police. The former minister has been further quoted as saying that the police humiliated him when it did not let him in the police station even after he had an appointment with the district police chief. He then allegedly asked the militants to revenge the insult to him. He threatened he would go on a hunger-strike if his dignity was not vindicated. The police is said to be on the lookout for Daleke to arrest him.

Agitated employees of Indian government’s estate office in Sector 17 Chandigarh went on strike on Sept.12 to protest against the alleged torture of two of their colleagues by the local police. The employers raised slogans against the police and the administration. According to P.S.Lamba a leader of employees federation the police arrested two daily wage workers Mohans Singh and Balwinder Kumar of the licensing branch tortured them for issuing a license in favor of the slain Babbar Khalsa militant Bhai Balwinder Singh Jattana Later the two were released and the employees took them to the Sector 16 hospital to have them medically examined for torture injuries sustained by them.

A convention of sarpanches (village mayors) belonging to Malerkotla block held under the chairmanship of a Hindu sarpanch Raj Kumar Rattan formed a 12-member action committee last week to represent to authorities that the police frequently misbehaved with them and treated them as associates of criminals. As and when the police picked up innocent youths in the villagers the village heads pleaded their cause but received insults from the police. The action committee plans to meet senior authorities to seek redress of their grievances against the police.

Harish Chander a Hindu journalist of Morinda who represents Punjabi Tribune and Ajit in a letter to the Punjab police chief alleged last week that vigilante groups of Ropar police had hatched a conspiracy to kill him for his pro-human rights articles. He said four suspected police cats at 1:30 am on Sept.5 insisted on personally seeing him. They described themselves as “Singhs” but the style of the knock showed that they were police “cats”. He refused to open the door. The car in which they travelled was later seen in the Morinda police station. The group again came to his residence the next day. The occupants of the car included sub-inspector Sucha Singh of Bahman Majra village. When the friends of the journalist followed the car it reached the Morinda police station.

Harish Chander said that the police had already registered a case against him under the dreaded TADA and raided his house in June 1991. It wanted to finish him off and attribute the crime in militants. He asked the Punjab government authorities to save his life from the police vigilante groups of the district police. At Chandigarh thousands of Punjab government employees staged a rally to protest against the illegal detention of the widowed mother Ajaib Kaur and minor sister Kamarjit Kaur of a clerk working in the deputy commissioner’ s office. They were kept in detention for 20 days. The employees warned that a strike would be started from September 28 if the authorities by then did not punish the guilty police officials. A large number of the men and women of Kacchar Market Model Gram and the neighboring colonies on Pakhowal Road of Ludhiana city laid siege to the police station to protest against maltreatment of a girl her brother and a relation by ASI Kuldip Singh.

According to information Gurpreet Singh Bajwa his sister a student of Government College for women and a relation Sandeep Singh were taking lunch at a restaurant when a police party headed by ASI Kuldip Singh took them in custody. They were interrogated and maltreated even after the police was informed that Bajwa had taken out his sister for a treat before he left for U.S.A. The girl had her warden’s permission.

Markets in the area closed as word spread about the maltreatment incident. Residents converged on the police station to gherao it to press the authorities to take action against the erring policemen. The people demanded registration of criminal cases against the policemen. The authorities refused and ordered lathi-charge on the crowd. The public threw stones on the police station before withdrawing. The S.P. later reportedly suspended the AST.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 20, 1991