CHANDIGARH: The Movement Against State Repression (MASR) has decided to conduct a census of atrocities committed by the state machinery in Punjab during the period 1984 to 1991.
The MASR has criticized the Shiromani Gurdwara parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for its failure to bring out a white paper on operation Bluestar when “atrocities” were committed on the Sikhs despite repeated assurances given by it.
In a letter addressed to the Sikh leadership, the convener of the MASR, Inderjit Singh Jaijee, has suggested that different Akali factions and the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) can be involved in the process of census of atrocities as these organizations had infrastructure at village level to gather information.
At the same time, Jaijec has felt that the census could not wait till the Akali leaders achieve unity. Till then the Akali Dal (Amritsar) could be involved in the process.
The MASR has appealed to Sikh masses to come forward to provide information on missing youth, fake encounters, molestation cases and other atrocities to be taken up in the court of law.
MASR has pointed out that the SGPC elections were not held after 1979 and since then the panth had passed through different phases of struggle.
The then elected members of the SGPC did not know about the aspirations of the panth which called for fresh elections to the Sikh body.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 21, 1995
