Gils report was written by Patricia Zossman, research associate for Asia Watch, on the basis of research undertaken during a fact finding mission to Punjab and New Delhi, India, by Gossman and James A Goldston, an attorney in November and December of 1990.

WSN will serialize excerpts from this document.

Throughout Punjab, torture is practiced systematically in police stations, in prisons and in the detention camps used by the paramilitary forces. In virtually every case Asia Watch

Investigated, persons taken into custody were tortured. Methods of torture include:

Pulling the victims legs far apart 80 as to cause great pain and internal pelvic injury;

Rotating a heavy wooden or metal roller over the victims thighs Policemen frequently sit or stand on the roller to increase the weight. In some cases, the roller is placed behind the victims knees and the legs forced back over it, crushing them against the roller.

Electric shock, applied to the victims genitals, head, ear sand legs;

Prolonged beatings with canes and leather straps;

Tying the victims hands behind the back and suspending him or her from the ceiling by the arms

Rape, threats of rape / molestation.

Torture is practiced to force detainees to sign confessions or to reveal information about alleged militants and as summary punishment for detainees believed to support the separation cause. Family members are frequently detained and tortured to reveal the whereabouts of relatives sought by the police, Security legislation now in effect in Punjab has suspended prior safeguards against torture, including the requirement that all detainees be seen by a judicial authority within 24 hours of arrest. These laws also permit incommunicado detention and the use of confessions obtained under duress; such provisions serve to increase the use of torture.

During house to house searches, the security forces routinely assault and threaten civilians. In some cases, virtually all the male residents of entire villages have been subjected to beatings and other forms of as sault. .

Although the Indian government has not made public the number of persons detained in Punjab and in prisons outside the state, estimates Fringe into the thousands, many of those detained appear to have been arrested only because they are young Sikh men, and are there for suspected militant sympathizers. Others are detained because their relatives are suspected of militant activity or because they reside in areas perceived to be militant strongholds.

Family members are frequently arrested in lieu of persons wanted by the police and are held as virtual hostages until the person sought is produced. Short term detention is also used punitively. Former detainees and the family members of de trainees have described being subjected to frequent short term arrests as a form of harassment.

Many detainees are routinely held in unacknowledged detention in police stations and at federal police camps throughout the state. In many cases, no grounds for arrest are provided. Detainees are frequently moved among various police stations, apparently in order to obstruct efforts to locate the detainees and produce them in court. Family members frequently are thwarted in their efforts to discover the whereabouts of detainees. In addition, police routinely defy court orders. As a result, habeas corpus petitions, although widely understood and used do not provide a remedy for illegal detentions. The detainees themselves rarely have access to lawyers, and some have been denied medical care. Lawyers who have attempted to represent detainees have also been harassed by the security forces.

The govt has harassed the local Punjab press, in some cases shutting down newspapers which publish press statements released by the militant groups. In other cases, local political leaders and human rights activists have been detained for the peaceful expression of political views.

To our knowledge, no member of the security forces in Punjab has been convicted of any human rights violation committed in the state, even in well publicized cases; the most severe punishments for abuses that have been reported have been dismissals or suspensions. Indeed, the government’s failure to prosecute the perpetrators of the killings of the Sikhs in 1984. provides the most graphic example of the unwillingness of the authorities 10 hold members of the security forces account able for grave human rights abuses .While the conflict in Punjab constitutes an extreme threat to civil order in the past ten years the response   that threat has been influenced more by short sighted political expediency than by a commitment on the part of the authorities to abide by the rule of law. Central government politicians under the Congress (I), National Front and Janata Dal (S) administrations have been given blanket authority to the police and paramilitary forces in Punjab to act outside the law. As a result, these forces have engaged in gross and systematic human rights abuses in the name of fighting “terrorism,” The corruption endemic to the Indian police system has also played its part. Police have routinely detained, tortured and killed persons in pursuit of bribery and extortion. By failing to prosecute members of its security forces responsible for such abuses, or even to acknowledge that such abuses have taken place, the Indian government has effectively condoned these practices.

Of the array of Sikh separatist groups operating in Punjab, only a few have the organizational structure of guerrilla organizations and are thus obliged to abide by international humanitarian law. These militant organizations, which are fighting to establish an independent state, have flagrantly violated that law by killing, kidnapping and as saluting civilians. Other armed groups which have murdered and assaulted civilians and have engaged in extortion and kidnapping have committed crimes under Indian law.

Asia Watch gathered direct testimony about many such attacks that have taken place since late 1989. In some cases, the attacks are designed to drive out the minority Hindu population; militants have engaged in indiscriminate attacks in predominantly Hindu neighborhoods and have selectively murdered Hindu civilians, Some of these attacks have been accompanied by threats to Hindus to leave Punjab.

Other militant attacks appear to have been designed to cause extensive civilian casualties and the victims have included both Sikh and Hindu civilians. Some militant groups have fired automatic weapons into residential and commercial areas and have derailed trains and exploded bombs in markets, restaurants, buses, residences and government buildings, killing and wounding civilians. In one of the most brutal of such attacks, on June 15, 1991, militant groups opened fire with automatic weapons into two passenger trains near Ludhaina, Punjab, killing at least 75 passengers. Other attacks have occurred outside Punjab in neighboring states and in New Delhi. Militant groups frequently execute.

Suspected police informers and members of supporters of rival factions often after torturing them. Some groups have also kidnapped civilians for ransom or to obtain the release of detained colleagues and in some cases have subsequently murdered their victims.

Militant organizations have also issued death threats and have assassinated Sikhs who have not supported the separatist cause or who have resisted the efforts of some militant groups to impose a fundamentalist Sikh ideology. A number of militant groups have also issued threats against business owners, academics and others they perceive as violating Sikh fundamentalist values. Journalists have been a particular target for this campaign. Militant organizations issued press statements warning journalists to adhere to a strict code of conduct in reporting the news. Failure to abide by the militants dictates is punishable by death, Militants have assassinated members of the press, including the director of the state radio operation in December 1990, and scores of reporters and others associated with newspapers opposed to the militants. Newspaper offices have also been attacked.

Militant groups have assassinated civil servants, elected officials and politicians and have kidnapped and. murdered their family members. In the first half of 1991, militant groups assassinated more than 24 political candidates campaigning for the state and national assemblies and issued widespread threats to voters, ultimately leading the Election Commission to postpone the vote.

By mid-1991, Punjab’s death toll for the first half of the year had already surpassed 2,000. It is impossible to say how many of that number are civilians, but there is no doubt that civilians, caught between the security forces and the militants, continue to count as the most frequent victims of the violence, As the violence continues to escalate, however, there has grown with it a disturbing tolerance for lawlessness by the state as a means of fighting the militant threat. As this report went to press, a new government had been elected in India under the Administration of Prime Minister Narasimba Rao. In the concluding chapter t0 this report, we have included recommendations of measures his government, Sikh politician sand the militant leaders must take if they are to break the cycle of violence and restore the rule of law to Punjab.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 8, 1991