On behalf of the Punjab Human Rights Organization I thank Keith Vaz (MP) for convening this meeting, the other MP’s and friends, who have come here to get firsthand information on human rights violations in Punjab.

The most serious challenge, the people of Punjab particularly the Sikhs & the State of Punjab, faces is the near absence of democratic norms for which the ruling party at the Centre must be held squarely responsible. Democracy is under great strain in India. All the major organs of State which sustain democracy such as an impartial and fearless judiciary, an independent press and conscientious legislature are on the retreat.

Needless to state that the PHRO stands for restoration and strengthening of Democracy in India ‘and is. opposed to the Authoritarian ways of the present Government of India and some of the State Governments.

The ruling party in order to maintain themselves in power, made Punjab a laboratory where all counter revolutionary machinations were put to test. The Constitution of India was undermined in several ways. The martial law was introduced under cover of providing aid to civil administration.

Thousands of Sikhs were killed in blatant violation of laws. Lawless laws were specially enacted and made applicable to Punjab. It is a pity that judiciary generally thought it expedient to live with these laws.

The 59th amendment of the Indian Constitution is the latest weapon in the ruling party’s fascist armory by which an emergency can be imposed at any time by the Indian Government in the Punjab.

But there already exists an undeclared emergency. False encounters have become a way of life with the police. Other security forces, indescribable methods of torture have been introduced that may put to shame as mild mannered any fascist rulers in the world, several thousands men and women are rotting in jails, many without trial and even without charges. The entire system has become brutal.

The deliberate departures from the Constitution are evident and for this Delhi rulers are fully responsible. Democratic rights and civil liberties of the Sikhs have been constantly under attack for more than five years, These attacks have been further stepped up recently in Punjab. Large scale “arrests”, tortures of Sikh women are the height of the State repression.

The energies of the Punjab Human Rights Organization have been directed during the past five years against the manner in which the ruling Junta at Delhi tried to suppress and crush democracy in Punjab, deny the Sikhs their human rights by killing hundreds of Sikh youths in fake encounters,

 

D.S.Gill, General secretary of Purgyab Human Rights Organization Addressed A British Parliamentary Group Of M.P’s, On July 25, 1989. The full text of his speech is being reproduced for the benefit of our readers.

 

The state violence is either directed against political opponents or against those who organized themselves to oppose the arbitrary and unjust use of force by the State. many are arrested, harassed and detained in jails because of their activities as lawyers, journalists, leaders of political groups or religious organizations. During the last two years, number of Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council’s members like Mr. Rajdev Singh Barnala, Mr. Balbir Singh Cheema, Mr. Jaspal Singh Sodhi, Mr. Balwant Singh Dhillon and Mr. Jagmohan Singh, and the PHRO activists, Mr. Gurcharan Singh Ghuman, Advocate, Mr. Gurdev Singh Benipal, Dr. Rajinderpaul Singh, Mr. G. S. Bal Advocate, Mr. Malvinder Singh Mali, including myself, were arrested or detained in jails only because of our professional and human rights activities.

Undeclared political censorship has been imposed in Punjab. Raids, searches, arrests and imprisonment of “offending” journalists are the indications of the State repression on the press. Newspapers and journals belonging to the Sikh community and Dalit groups have been proscribe, viz a viz Dignity, Paigam, Samparak, Jantak Lehar, Sant Sipahi, Quami Rajniti etc., and their printers, publishers and editors like Mr. V. T. Rajshekar, Mr. Su&tdey Singh, Mrs. Kamaljit Kaur, etc., have been booked under terrorists and sedittansacts. Mr. Sukhdev Singh was detained in jail for six months. They have been terrorized and forced, not to highlight the grievances and human rights situation of the Punjab and the Sikhs.

Even the Judiciary have not been spared. It has been terrorized into silence and subordination due to certain policies, interferences and enactment by the central government of dreaded legislations which have curbed the powers of the judiciary. Even where Judges have tried to do justice such as Mr. J.S. Mander, Judicial Magistrate, Ludhiana; by taking up a criminal complaint against Union minister Mr. Bhajan Lal, he was transferred posthaste in a most disgusting manner. Mr. Mander issued warrants of arrest of Mr. Bhajan Lal who, in his speech had said that the Sikh terrorists should be shot dead because they did not deserve to be arrested and tried by the law courts, This complaint was filed by me as General Secretary of the Punjab Sikh Lawyers Council. The court proceedings have been stayed by the Supreme Court of India, because the accused Mr. Bhajan Lal had pleaded for the transfer of the cases from the Punjab to some other State because of security risks. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

There have been extrajudicial killings and tortures even in judicial lockups. Four marked Sikh youths were killed in Sangrur jail.

The under trails of Nabha jail, who were arrested from the GoIden Temple in 1984, were tortured in the Ladha Kothi. Many Sikh militant leaders like Mr. Manbir Singh Chaheru, Mr. Tarsem Singh Kohar, Mr. Sukhdev Singh Sukha, Mr. Avtar Singh Pehlwan, Mr. Aroor Singh, Mr. Manjeet Singh Bhindi, and Roshan Lal Baraigi, were taken out from different jails and murdered after showing them to have escaped from the police custody during transit. The PHRO reports on these human rights violations are a testimony to it.

In Punjab the Indian State has been continuing to contravene Articlé”14 of the International Covenant on Civil an Political Rights by enacting specials laws such as the National Security Act (Preventive Detention), The Disturbed Area Act, The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. The most dreaded of these legislations is the 59th Amendment to the Indian Constitution, which empowers the Centre to impose Emergency in Punjab, whereby the right of life and personal liberty enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution has been taken away. These “Black Laws” have been enacted and made applicable only to Punjab. More than 5,000 Sikhs belonging to all shades of opinion are rotting in jails without trail. These include leaders like Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann, President Akali Dal (Mann), Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, former Chief Minister of Punjab; Mr. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Chief of the Shromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC); Mr. Dhanna Singh, Panthic Committee member; Mr. Maneet Singh and Mr. Harminder Singh Sandhu, President and General Secretary of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) respectively. There is no rule of law in the State, fair trail is just not possible in face of these draconian legislations. The world known concept of criminal jurisprudence that a person is presumed to be innocent unless proved otherwise, has been turned ‘on its head as the onus has been laid down on the individual to prove his innocence.

Under the provisions of the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act, special courts have been created for the trial of the Sikhs. ‘These designated courts are mostly held in jails, where open trial, any access to Lawyers, press and the public are just not possible. These political courts are aimed at punishing the persons because of their political and religious beliefs.

The PHRO’s recent report called “Security Forces as Private Senas (Ammies)” reveals how the Punjab Police and paramilitary forces are themselves involved in unlawful and criminal activities, including plundering and adjudication upon private disputes for considerations of money.

The secretive pro government death squads, are operating in Punjab, which have been assigned the job of assassinating the Sikh rebels, who are demanding an independent Sikh State in Punjab. One such gang leader was Santokh Singh Kala, who has recently been killed by a militant group operating in Punjab. The so-called counter terrorist, Santokh Singh Kala was responsible for eliminating more that SO Sikhs and their families in Amritsar District waiter. Kala had himself boasted of has mission being blessed by none other than the Indian Prime Minister, and the Advisor, the Punjab Governor Mr. J F Rebeiro (Punjab Bulldozed A PHRO report to the world on Operation Black Thunder II, p17). The Rape of Punjab yet another report Indian State Indignities on ‘Sikh women and children also reveals how the Punjab Police has launched a massive, inhuman aggression on the hapless women folk. We have evidence, on how women have been made to suffer abuse in public, in front of their family members. They were taken to police stations, where they were stripped naked and paraded in front of their male relative. In some cases they were mass raped, by the police.

The aim behind this aggression, is to bring to submission the whole Sikh community and to show them that the State can go to any extend to stop the Sikh people from sympathizing with Sikh militants.

As a result a crafty statesmanship of certain Indian politicians, the Sikhs and Punjab were embroiled in a holocaust of racial nature aimed at destruction of Sikh norms. The result was the operation “Blue Star”, mopping up operation “Wood rose”, November 1984 Sikh massacre and false encounters. It was most unfortunate that most of these human acts were committed with the aid of laws, rules and proclamations made by the brutal majority in the Indian Parliament. The rule of law a basic necessity of the society, was done away with, in Punjab and for the Sikhs,

Justice to the people of Punjab particularly to the Sikhs can only be done if the democratic norms are observed in letter and spirit and when promises publicly made, constitutionally declared and affirmed are not broken in the interest of political expediency. And it should he plainly admitted that the Sikh community in India has been alienated from the national mainstream. Undoubtedly, Delhi is the fountain head of all the trouble in Punjab.

Mr. Justice S M Sikari, former Chief Justice of India, who headed the public enquiry commission on the November 1984 Sikh carnage in the wake of assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, concluded in his report saying “IF the Sikhs, the valiant guardians of our Western marches, who have fully contributed to the independence. Of our country and te its process and prosperity, feel injured or alienated, it weakens the very fabric of our society and vitality of our nation.” Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The Supreme court of India has further held that even amidst the clash of arms the laws (of life & liberty) shall not be terrorized into silence.

Justice is what justice does, and a prosecutor (the police) cannot become a judge, are two of the world’s fundamentals of the legal jurisprudence. So the state cannot take away the life of any person, howsoever dreaded he may be, without the “due process of law”. It cannot be allowed in a civilized country that the law enforcing agencies to short cut the legal process and let the security forces become the summary executioners, A widely followed police practice in India, is to kill innocent people in police custody and encounters by labeling them as dacoits, terrorists, extremists or Naxalites, Even in prisons and police lockups the persons are not guaranteed the protection, they deserve,

And lastly PHRO avails this Opportunity to reiterate its recommendations on Punjab as below:

  1. In the first instance the 59th amendment to the Constitution should be rescinded, In addition all the antidemocratic black laws enacted for Punjab should be repealed.
  2. All prisoners held in connection with the Punjab problem should be set free or tried under the normal democratic laws.
  3. All those responsible for the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs following Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination should be brought to book as speedily as possible. Those responsible for fake encounters in Punjab should also face the process of law.
  4. There should be a headcount of the casualties resulting from the political turmoil in Punjab. There is absence of knowledge of those who suffered at the hands of the State and its agencies. The state has been odd handed all these years; it has only given the lists of casualties as a result of violence indulged in by private groups and individuals. Without the head count, a proper plan of relief and rehabilitation cannot be thought of.
  5. Those who lost their positions in. public and private sector services as a sequel to the Punjab problem. should be reinstated. These included military and police officials whose services were dispensed with under emotional stress by the authorities.
  6. In keeping with the spirit and social aims of the freedom movement reflected finally in the All Indian Congress Working Committee resolution favoring the creation of a “Punjabi speaking State ‘out of the (then) existing State of Punjab”, strictly on linguistic basis. Thus not only Punjabi speaking areas in Haryana and Rajasthanbut also those in Himachal Pradesh should be merged into Punjab. More specifically the areas comprising Bhakra, Pong and other hydro electrical projects should be transferred to Punjab.
  7. The constitutional right of Punjab to its river water resources (Entry 17, List II Schedule) should be restored and respected in to and not curbed or curtailed through devious means. In turn, Punjab should show good will towards its neighbors and allow water supplies on the basis of equitable bilateral, time bound agreements on consideration. The controversial, politically motivated SYL canal should be dismantled forthwith.

The implementation of the above mentioned schedule will certainly create its own momentum to pave the way for a negotiated settlement of the Punjab issue/on the basis of liberal autonomous powers granted to Punjab. No harm will come to India if powers are similarly transferred to other States as well. An inbuilt mutual dependence of different nations in India could be provided in the new scheme of Constitution which should also incorporate the UM. principle of people right of self-determination, where mutual dependence fails.

We hope that human right groups and governments outside India Will take up these issues with the Indian Government and use their good offices in solving the Punjab problem which is essentially a political problem and not a law and order problems is being claimed by the present Indian rulers just to promote their political designs. I therefore, approach this conference to explain the human night situation n the state of Punjab and to get sympathy and solidarity for the people of Punjab, at the same time, hope that you will raise your voice against State terrorism in Punjab at all the appropriate forums including Parliamentary Human Rights Groups (PMRG).

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 11, 1989