NEW DELHI: Avtar Singh Sidhu a Sikh civil rights activist who was tortured by the police because he exposed their false encounters, tortures and false disappearances (WSN May 5) tried to tell his story to the Indian press at a press Conference in the Press Club in New Delhi even as Punjab Governor Sidarth Shamkar Ray was addressing another conference the.

But he found no listeners and the Governor’s disclaim for press club sandwiches found a greater space in the Capital’s dailies that the horrifying story of this young Akali Dal leaders torture!

The Governors views were of Course prominently presented. Columnist Talveen Singh writes the reset of the story in the Indian Express:

What, I wonder, would Siddharta Shankar Ray have called Avtar Singh, had he died under torture? Martyr or terrorist? Natutally, he would not have died in custody with an iron roller crushing his thighs. He would have been killed in an encounter in some desolate field preferably on the Pakistani border and we would have read the next day of how yet another “dreaded terrorist” had been eliminated by our brave security forces and how an AK47 and several rounds of ammunition had been found on him. In fact so confident do these dreaded terrorists appear to have become, of late, that he may even have been carrying color photos of himself being trained in Pakistan. But next time you see a headline which says, “Dreaded Terrorist Killed on Pakistani Border I want you to stop and remember Avtar Singh’s story.

Journalists Indifference

Ironically, he chose to tell it at the Press Club, the venue of the Governor’s luncheon. But he did not attract crowds of Punjab specialists and eager, investigative journalists. It was late, Saturday afternoon press conference and even the handful of reporters who came, showed from the expressions on “their faces that they did not think the story would make more than two paragraphs.

Avtar seemed unaware of this, however and he told his story with ardour and impatience, almost as if he felt that simply by his telling it, justice would be done, Ina tumble of words, we heard that he was a leader of the Youth Akali Dal in several of his relatives and friends including his younger brother, Jagtar Singh, 22 who is still in jail. Avtar fled to Delhi to seek the help of his senior party leader. Amafinder Singh, who advised him to surrender to the police and personally accompanied him to KP‘S. Gill’s house in Chadigarh.

 Not Changed

Punjab’s new Supercop assured Amarinder Singh that he would not be tortured or implicated in any false cases, but when after three weeks he had still not been produced in court, civil rights workers, belonging to the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab, began to investigate his whereabouts and make a noise about his arrest. It nevertheless, took six weeks before he was finally released on November 30 last year without any charges being made. 25

After surrendering to Mr: Gil Avtar was sent to what he calls the CIA interrogation center in Faridkot. Yes, the initials do stand for what you think they do, but this is an indigenous product of which little is known since the police continue to deny that any such thing exists. In this center he was flung into a cell in which there were seven other youths, including one who had been arrested from his home when the police raid took place, Avtar describes the cell as being freezing cold with no toilet, so that the floor was covered with urine and human excrement.

Torture Began

The next day the physical torture began. It was conducted by several policemen (some of whom Avtar can identify), in an open verandah outside the cell. This is what they did. They tore up my shirt and stripped me naked. The toes of my feet were tied together with my own shoestrings. My hands were bound to the back with my turban. Three constables got behind me and started pulling my hair. Someone brought an iron pipe, six feet long and five inches thin, and placed on my thighs. Three policemen got on the top of the pipe and two others, holding it from both ends started rolling it up and down between my hips and knees. It could not have pained more if my legs had been amputated”. “

Then came the questions which were more in the nature of a statement of fact. Avtar was ac

And then, finally, came the real reason for his arrest: why was he in politics? why did he provide journalists with information about faIse encounter and would he guarantee in future to stay away from politics.

Fainted Many Times

“My torture was resumed and intermittently broken for interrogation and resumed again. 1 was caught in this cycle for the next four days. I fainted many times and considered myself as good as dead. During the nights they did not let me sleep. The moment my eyes shut they hit me with the butts of their rifles of kicked me in the groin. They not even let me sit down”.

Afterwards his services were enlist what has come to be known in Punjab Operation Tinted Glass. This is the Punjab Police crude and generally unreliable member of intelligence gathering of which no ‘one records exist since the CLA does not officially exist. In it “dreaded terrorists” like Avtar taken into Punjab’s streets in unnumbered vehicles with windows of tinted glass vehicles are parked in crowed bazaars outside public places like railway stations, Gurdwaras and they are asked to identify other dreaded terrorists.

Friend Shot Dead

Avtar refused to identify anyone but friend Manjinder Singh Saini (arrested from his shop made the mistake of pointing to friend called “Chhinda” who was going by rickshaw. The policemen with him immediately opened fire and shot him dead in the Bazaar in order to later identify him as one of the terrorists responsible for a massacre in Sirhind. Manjinder, himself was later shot dead in an encounter’ which Avtar read about while still in custody.

Threatened

Before Avtar was finally released, largely on account of pressure from civil rights activists he was warned that if he ever said anything about what had happened to him he would be killed. “A senior police officer told me that I better take the warning seriously because even if my story appeared in the Press it would be forgotten in six months and then I could consider myself as good as dead,” he said.

Avtar has not been frightened off, despite being rearrested once more, mainly because he is fighting to get his younger brother released. His case has been complicated by the fact that the police has slapped on the usual charge of possessing AK47 while travelling on a motorcycle.

Several Other Cases

Avtar’s story is by no means unique. The Committee for information and initiative on Punjab has listed several other cases of torture and wrongful arrest in a report called” state terrorism in Punjab’. Some of the “dreaded terrorists” killed in encounters include children as young as fifteen and even

women. The estimate of the number of people held without trial in the state varies between 3,000 and 5,000 but so immune have we become to Punjab”s plight that it does not seem to matter.

So much so that the Prime Minister’s recent exoneration of HLK.L. Bhagat and his outrageous assertion that his government should be complimented for controlling the 1948 violence quickly, has passed almost without comment. He has even been taken to routinely informing us that action has been taken against the killers. Who? Where? When? and what of Sajjan Kumar, the honorable Congress(1) MP, against whom proceedings were ordered by a Government committee and stalled by the Congress(1) itself?

The Governor of Punjab was good enough to inform us that there was unlikely to be a solution to the Punjab problems till after the Lok Sabha election . He may have meant it differently but, in fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that there can be no solution till there is a government in Delhi that is prepared to face up the truth about Punjab which is that the State has been responsible for more innocent deaths than even terrorists.

Article extracted from this publication >>  May 26, 1989