Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Indian officials had claimed that the 16 people killed by the Indian Border Security Force in Khem Karan sector were Pakistani nationals sent to India for subversive activities.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist: But India’s foremost national daily “Indian Express” quoting informed sources, has said that those killed were unarmed Bangladeshis of Bihar origin who were trying to cross over to Pakistan from India.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Can you tell who really these unfortunate victims were? Were they Bangladeshis or were they innocent Sikh youths? Don’t you think Indian Security Forces committed a heinous crime in killing unarmed people? Will those responsible for the crimes be tried by impartial trials?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, it has been indisputably established now that police and paramilitary troops in Punjab have orders from Director General of Police, Mr. J.S. Ribeiro to kill Sikh young men on least suspicion.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist: Accordingly many young men have been liquidated and many more are being hounded to be executed in the so called Security Belt.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think under such a state of lawlessness and prevailing state terrorism, Sikh young men have no option but to resort to violent means? How can you call such young men as “terrorists” who are fighting against state terrorism and are in fact? Trying to establish a rule of law?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, the popular Indian magazine India Today, has published a spine-chilling story from Ranchi Mansik Arogyashala, Bihar, about a cornea smuggling racket.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist: The story relates to the gouging of 22 year old Subodh Singhs eyes and the confession of an ex-warder of the Asylum who said “whenever I went to dispose of the body, I found the eyes missing”.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think, the abominable act of gouging the eyes of the inmates of the asylum for money is typical of Brahmin-Bania mentality? How can non-Hindus expect justice in a land where majority community is so ruthless with its own kind?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 29, 1986
