and orphans. Several had gone to their relatives in the villages where communal violence could easily have erupted, the Hindus being in the minority in the rural areas. That nothing has happened is not because of any extra precaution taken by the Government or solace offered to the bereaved, nor because of the presence of the Army. Repression of the Army has crossed all limits beyond which it is difficult to imagine even the Army could go to quell communal violence if it had at all occurred. Could the presence of the Army control communal violence in Gujarat? We felt it was the innate wisdom of the villagers which kept passions under control; while visiting the Sarpanch of the Village Sandhu Chatha in Kapurthala district, we met one such wise man, his 80-year old uncle and heard what he had done to calm down his neighbors when they began to get excited after hearing the people who had come there for shelter. Calling them together with great gentleness he explained to them that by killing people who had not harmed them they would not get those back they have lost making others as miserable as they were themselves would not lessen their own pain. Guru will comfort them and time heal the wound. There never was any trouble in that village nor in any other village, we visited. Though we were all Hindu and most of the villagers were Sikhs, we were treated as one of them and their trust in us was deeply moving. How genuine this feeling of friendship is between the two communities was made clear to us by a small peasant owning only three acres of land. His story is worth narrating: Gurmeet Singh alias Kahan Singh (35) of village Khanna Chamara was surrounded by the military near Dharmakot Randhawa village at about 8 a.m. when he was coming to Dera Baba Nanak on his cycle. *‘I had just received Rs. 700 as price of my corn from Babu Shah Commission agent; I had a Kirpan which I had bought at Rs. 300 now its value will not be less than Rs. 1000, a Barccha (spear) at Rs. 100 and a small Kirpan at Rs. 50 all of which were my religious symbols but these were all snatched away by the military. I was hit with rifle butts. Suddenly it appears there was a lot of noise— some Gujjars who always come to Punjab with their cattle— buffaloes, sheep, horses, donkeys etc. during winter were returning to Kangra as it was getting hot. The attention of the military was diverted and they got busy with these hundreds of Gujjars. The people in the market who were mainly Hindus signed to me to run away. I took my cycle and ran towards the market. The Hindus shouted “Run away, run away Baba— otherwise the military will shoot you.” They helped me in running through the market—they did not inform the military. They saved my life.” This happened on 4-6-1984.

That in the country-side the two communities lived in perfect harmony, was clear again when Gurnam Kaur (50), wife of the agriculturist Swaran Singh of Harchowal village mentioned just casually how ‘‘all Hindus and Sikhs of the village used to go to the police station for the release of my daughter-in-law, but nobody would listen to them. There is also fear if somebody goes to her help, he also would be apprehended.” This statement makes it clear that the Hindus of her village not only used to go the police station but were prepared to take risks and all on their own, as they had nothing to expect from Swaran Singh, a very small peasant who had gone mad, one whose son Avtar Singh was missing while the police was after him. This was an important interview for us; not only did it tell us about the communal situation in the village, but about the terrible molestation of women going on unchecked. “Since September Avtar Singh (26) had not come home”, said Gurnam Kaur adding stoically, “the papers said SSP Pandey had caught him—must have killed him for he has not come home, and I do not know where he has gone. The police came and took his wife and kept her in Srihargovindpur Police Station for 3 months without any charge, and without producing her before any Magistrate. Whenever they want, they take her to the Police Station and there is no woman police there, so they molest her, insult her, humiliate her as they like. “Tell me,” Gurnam Kaur asked us, ‘‘If any man sees this kind of behavior with his wife or sister how would he react?” This question asked by a village woman is asked by all, and if a man ‘reacts’ as the old woman implied and as all right thinking person’s think he should, he is called a ‘terrorist.’

Who are the real terrorists?

The definition of the word ‘terrorist’ is left purposely vague and broad, so that any kind of protest can land one in the authorities’ net and then in the Special Court. The Police can present a challan in a period upto one year—thus, as an under trial one remains without the possibility of bail.

The Special Courts are bursting at their seams; a Police Officer, a Hindu, admitted that 90 per cent cases are false and the kinds who were facing the charge of burning down railway stations or bombing bridges could never have done such things; the real criminals have escaped. In Amritsar we got a chance to talk to a “dangerous terrorist’ who and been accused of snatching at revolver from a policeman and had been brought to the Special Court that morning. Prakash Singh (22) of village Verka told us a story we did not believe till we heard the same story from Mr. Dalbir Singh, an Advocate and a member of the Le- gal Aid Committee, Amritsar. In Jethana Army Camp where Prakash Singh and his friend had been taken under the charge of revolver- snatching, they were sent for by the Army Commander of the Camp and asked to confess and also to demonstrate how they had done it. He assured them they would be released if they confessed and demonstrated. Prakash’s friend, out of sheer desire to get out, confessed and as he was demonstrating how he was running away with the revolver, the Commander shot him down. Prakash was then told to see if his friend was still alive and as he was moving towards the body he was shot at but the bullet missed him, the Commander had another try but missed again. Some superstition which forbade him to try a third time saved Prakash Singh. On this no comment is necessary—it merely shows how Indian Army personnel who had made a name for their humane behavior during the Bangladesh war have been behaving while dealing with their own people in their own country. We had been shaken by this story not realizing at that time that this was only the first of many such atrocities committed by the Army in Punjab villages we were to hear of during our stay.

On terrorists and terrorism a group of villagers from Gurdaspur’s Jaffarwal village had a lot to say, and since they have been the sufferers we must quote them in full (as far as possible in their own words translated from Punjabi into English): “Police is terrorizing the people. All those who are to protect us, like B.S.F., Punjab Police, C.R_P., military and Central Government forces are the real terrorists and extremists; because terrorists are those who have crossed all limits of law and humanity. Now the government and its agencies have crossed all those limits. It is not Pakistan which is training terrorists; it is these agencies of the government who are doing that.

Communalism of our protection forces in a ‘secular’ state

“They are terrorizing the Amritdharis, because they want to finish Sikhism; then they come to us who are not Amritdharis. We are at the receiving end, we are being forced to leave our homes. Wasan Singh’s house is lying empty, his lands are lying untilled. The police do not allow the land to be cultivated. There are thousands of cases like this.” Then we heard the story of Wasan Singh— but it was really about the midnight arrest without warrant two days earlier, of his 70- year-old mother that they had come to tell us: ‘‘ We have been to all the Police Stations, but cannot find her.” Wasan Singh, a young man of 26 was an employee at the Dhariwal Mills, “*a soft-spoken, religious man”, but he was “an Amritdhari Sikh and that was his crime. So he was declared a terrorist and he is absconding.”” When the police came to arrest him, not finding him they arrested his younger brother. The entire family, including Wasan Singh’s father, his wife and children and other brother are since absconding: only Bibi Surjit Kaur, his mother was left at home and now she too has been taken away.

The story is the same in village after village. Arrest an Amritdhari, raid the house again and again, as Harbans Ghuman’s in Ghuman Kalan village was, 45 times. His hands tied up and his back with his turban, his eyes bandaged so hard that they are often damaged, his faith spoken of in the most abusive language, he is thrown in the van and pushed inside the interrogation centre—a torture chamber to be truthful. Nine different methods of torture, two of which have been- described in detail in the report of Sri T. S. Cheema, District and Sessions Judge, Patiala (see Annexure No. 5) are used to break his body and crush his spirit. To find out what? Where is Bhindranwale? Who are your friends and relatives? How many Hindus have you killed? Where have you kept the weapons? The names of his friends and relatives are obtained and similar treatment meted out to them. Meanwhile, refuse the man water to drink till he is almost dead, give him no more than two minutes to go to lavatory, and if he is little late beat him mercilessly. Avtar Singh of Jaffarwal village who was sleeping by his oxen in September 1984 was dragged away by the military to their camp and mercilessly beaten and tortured, was not given any water to drink. ‘“‘They would bring a glass of water to our mouths and then withdraw it, we would fall down unconscious. They would allow us to go to the lavatory only once a day at 12.30″.

Surji Singh Bhatia, 47—a teacher in a Government Middle School in Dailo Raya village Nangal was arrested suddenly on June 8th 1984 from his house when he was trying to arrange for some Ata for his friends— Sikhs and Hindus—who were all officials of the telephone exchange and staying with him during the curfew. His house was raided; he was taken to the G.T. Road and every method of torture was used on him because he was an Amritdhari. On the verge of death he was given a sip of water by one sepoy, “through the cloud of sub-conscious J heard the sepoy say that I was dying to which the DSP said that if I did not show any sign of life after 5 minutes, I should be shot down and the body removed. When! realized what they would do to me | forced myself to remain awake and show them that I was still alive.” If some, unable to bear the torture die, no postmortem is called for, since there is no record of their arrest; even the bodies are not handed over and if in some cases they are, the relative taking over the body has to certify under the threat of being shot down that the man had committed suicide. Thus several able bodied, innocent men who were only there yesterday ploughing their small pieces of land peacefully are not there today and have disappeared leaving no trace behind—but only the pain and anguish in the hearts of the women who loved them. Gurmit K aur (32). widow of Karnail Singh of Village Kila Lal Singh, Gurdaspur Dist. owns a 2-4 acres plot of agricultural land, told us a story of incredible brutality. “The police took away my husband on 11.11.84 giving no reason for arrest, not say where he was being taken. On 13.11.84 Ludhiana Police came to tell me that my husband was very ill and I should go with them. Reaching there | found he was dead, his arms were broken, there were many injuries on the testicles, the legs had been stretched to such an extent that the body had got torn and his intestines had come out. The body had fallen apart so it could not be brought home for cremation. There was no FIR, he was not presented before any Court, he was arrested without warrant and there was no witness like the Sarpanch when he had been taken away.” Hiding her tears she said, “it would have been better if he was shot rather than killed like this through torture.” There is nobody to till the land, now that Karnail Singh is dead and she is saddled with an old and sick 80-year old brother-in-law and her own two small children: in many families it is not merely the sorrow of death but the fear of starvation which is haunting them.

Obsession with Amritdharis

The Army’s obsession with Amritdharis becomes clear from the appeal the Army Gazette had released through Army Headquarters: it was published in Baat Cheet Special No. 153. The Appeal said, * Any knowledge of the Amnitdharis who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murders, arson and act of terrorism should immediately be brought to the notice of the authorities. These people might appear harmless from outside but they are basically committed to terrorism. In the interest of all of us their identity and whereabouts must always be disclosed.” . There is no dearth of men who are ready to identify Amritdharis and disclose their whereabouts. One such Amritdhari’s presence in village Sadulal, Amritsar District was reported to the Army. Sohan Singh (32) of Longowal village of Gurdaspur—a small agriculturist had gone with his wife and small daughter to look after the land of his father-in-law who had fallen sick. “Some army men suddenly came to my father’s house when we were sitting down to eat and asked my husband if he was an Amritdhari. He said he was a religious Sikh. The army men were abusive, they pulled his beard, opened out his turban and said Sikhs are badmashes; my husband said, “I am a small peasant; it does not matter if people think badly of me.” At that those men threw him on the ground and began to beat him badly, and then they dragged him out of house and took him in their jeep.” The statement was made by his wife. Bhajan Pratap Singh of village Tarseka, Annitsar District, who was in the lock-up next to the rooms where Sohan Singh had been put told us what had happened there, “I could hear him cry and ask for water, I think an employee perhaps was going to give him some water when I heard someone abusing him, “Is he your Sala?’’ Others who were in that camp used to hear him shriek and one day everything was quiet. We came to know that Sohan Singh’s eyes had been gouged out and every joint of his body had been broken with steel rods. Later when his body was handed over to his widow and his elder brother Baldev Singh, they found the eyes were not there the body was just pulp without joints and it had become unusually long; the Army had handed it over to the S.H.O., Jhandiala, District that it was a case of suicide; there was no Post-mortem report to prove that the man had died of torture: Sohan Singh’s body was brought to his village Longowal and cremated there. One began to wonder if India is really a secular State where freedom of worship is allowed to every citizen; Amritdharies are like the Hindus who have taken “Deeksha’ from their Gurus; those who have been initiated so to speak and observe certain rules in their private life and are more religious more rigid in their observance of rituals than their co-religionists but that does not make them dangerous and in any case Army’s duty does not involve witch-hunting.

Our disciplined army

In a democracy Army is not meant to sort out political acrimonies, to deal with law and order situation and commit atrocities on defenseless citizens arbitrarily. Its undivided attention should have been focused on the defence of the border. This is not being done, at least not in Dera Baba Nanak, people come and go, smuggling goes on in this important border. By harassing families to produce missing men, by molesting, by daily arresting men, and even children, from nearby villages, nothing positive can be achieved; this can only make the people hate the Army and create new terrorists. Shri Kripal Singh’s sorrowful words about the Army are worth quoting: ‘““When General Dyer killed people in Jallianwala Bagh, the bodies had been given back to their relatives but strangely our own Army killed our own people and did not return the bodies to their relatives. Thereafter a reign of terror was let loose in this area. Any Sikh youth who wore a yellow or blue turban or had a kirpan was captured, humiliated and shot. I had given a memorandum to Major General Jamwal, who was the Army Commander at that time here. Those Army men are the same who had been served by the Punjabis—specially by the village people—in the battle fields, with lassi and paranthas which they carried on their heads.”

We heard a frightening story from Gurmeet Singh of Khanna Chamara village how Army Officers interfered in people’s private lives: “A Christian girl was getting married and there was a party in the village. Being falsely informed that there were terrorists, the army came in the village in three vans, surrounded the village and a drunken Major entered the house of the bride with a few of his men; he ordered all male guests to come out with hands up and the women guests to dance. “The ladies were made to dance all night under threat; we men were blind-folded, vilely abused and taken to the military camp and kept there for two nights, then we were handed over to the police. At the police station we were insulted, humiliated, beaten, without any charge sheet; it was only after the Panchayat came with the villagers to the police station and pleaded with the authorities about our innocence that we were released.” We were told a similar story of interference by the police in Kalasangha—there was a marriage in the village. The police took away the radio operator who was installing the radio. He was released only after the policemen were invited to the wedding feast.

Scorched earth policy

Sixty-year-old Boota Singh of village Pagthana Baardwala said, “my son Ajit Singh (20) is untraceable since Army action in June; my house has been raided 10 times during the last eight and half months and my three other sons and myself have been arrested 5 times, taken to a CIA staff, kept there, tortured for one month, then released for a couple of weeks, then again taken, again interrogated, again tortured, then released again for a few days. Time and again it is because of the intervention of the Panchayat we are released; I was released only yesterday (May 5 we were there on May 6, 1985). My son Pritam Singh is still in custody. We are very much harassed. We are never produced before a magistrate but continuously ordered to produce my missing son Ajit Singh.

Types of harassment

We have no desire to live. About !00 Army men suddenly raid our house in the night, pounce upon our sleeping sisters and ladies and small children. We are not even allowed to harvest. Death is better than this life.” It was a cry of anguish. People are not allowed to harvest, not allowed to cultivate in some areas, the labour is driven away. We heard this in almost all the villages in Dera Baba Nanak. Young Rajawant Kaur of Shahpur Guraiya was alone in her house with two of her small nephews—her brother had gone to Golden Temple and had not returned since June Army action. So her old sick father, ““who cannot even sit up” had been taken away at least ten times since December; on May 4 at night my sister-in-law with her one year old baby has been taken away. I do not know where. For the last six months our crop is not being allowed to be harvested. The laborers were threatened and they have all left; there is none to look after the land or the cattle’. Rajwant Kaur with exemplary self-control kept her tears back. Only there were so many Rajwant Kaurs. The threat is ‘the land with crops will be set on fire’, ‘the house will be destroyed’, even the relatives who had come to help have been arrested. There was Surinder Kaur(25), wife of a rickshaw puller who had come home to harvest his wheat but was arrested. There was Mata Dato(70) whose one son has not returned since June 84 and the other son is taken to the Police station every other day and beaten up.

The demand is he must produce his brother. There was Darshan Kaur (26) who herself was arrested along with her husband Balbinder Singh, by paying Rs. 1000 to the police she had got herself released but not her husband. ‘He has been too badly tortured that he would be useless for any hard work”, she said. Now he is in Gurdaspur Jail under a fake charge of having thrown a grenade.”

The Sarpanch of Village Haruwal (PS Dera Baba Nanak) Sardar Sukhdev Singh, along with several other Sarpanchs, from different villages, had come the day we were in Dera Baba Nanak to get 20 persons released from the Police Station “From my village 65-year-old Jagir Singh and 50-year-old Jagjit Singh have been in unlawful police custody for the last 4 days. They do not give food to the arrested persons—we have to supply them food.”

Government actively communal

Soon after the Operation Blue Star the Government inducted a number of CRPF and BSF officers from outside Punjab to deal with terrorists. The Sarpanch of Village Haruwal bitterly complained that “the D.I.G., S.P. A.S.P., even the S.H.O. are all Hindus and every day they are arresting only Sikhs. Recently Inspector Kirpal Singh of B.S.F. came on leave to my village and he was arrested. When I went to the police station for his release, the S.H.O. threatened to arrest me. It was only after badly insulting Kirpal Singh that they released him. I feel so harassed, and have no desire to live. Daily I have to go to the Police Station for the release of innocent persons from 7 a.m. in the morning till late at night; death is better than this sort of situation and constant harassment.” What this Sarpanch said in great anguish can be said for all: “The Military has proved to the Sikhs that it is not there for their protection, but to kill them. In order to save themselves from harassment some run away to Pakistan and they are declared ‘terrorists’ and ‘extremists’. The families of those who have run away, or have died are harassed. They are more like an Army of occupation, than our own men who once used to live in our own villages”’.

Army rule in Punjab

For months after the Operation Blue Star it was undeclared Army rule in Punjab. That Civil Authorities had ceased to function will be clear from the following instant: An accused with eyes tightly bandaged was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shri Cheema. The Court ordered the bandage to be removed. His orders were not obeyed: after hearing the case the Court ordered that the accused should be sent to jail and not returned to Army custody; at once a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Army entered and clearly told the Magistrate in Hindi which all heard “‘Goli khayega or remand dega’’—in the retiring room the order of the court sending the accused to jail was tom up and replaced by a remand order.

Shri Cheema complained to the Sessions Judge and the District Magistrate who brought the matter to the notice of the Brigadier. The Brigadier expressed regret but it remained there.

Corruption was rampant. “They would stop trucks on the roads, and beat up the drivers and let them move on only after they had paid handsomely,” said Shri Balbir Singh of Chonoy village (P. S. Sri Hargovindpur, Distt. Gurdaspur), a retired Army Captain. He too had been arrested: ‘‘They told me I was an extremist.”’ Even after his release, he was under House arrest: if you leave your home, you’ll be shot.” For 8 months, he could not go to his land. Iqbal Singh, an agriculturist of village Bhawri (P. S. Hargovindpur) said, “‘we have proof that some military officers used to visit rich Sikh landlords and were entertained lavishly by them. This happened in my own village. The rich landlords, would get the poor people, who might have stood up against them, arrested by the Army, and after they had been beaten up and tortured, they would get them released. Many poor people have been harassed this way to keep them under control in future. The landlords did this by bribing the military officers.”

In Patiala, we heard how the Army men had looted private homes after the Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara had been attacked and hundreds of people killed-—many of them women, some blind beggars and several children. A report, giving details of the loss of property had been published in the Indian Express on June 13, 1984. On the night of June 14th, the Army Commander came back to the Gurudwara, sent for its Manager, Shri A. S. Gill and told him, ‘‘You are maligning my Army men, and you know you’re free only because of my kindness.” The manager was made to sign a typed statement saying he had never sent any statement accusing the Army of looting. A. S. Gill told this to us himself, at Patiala. The manager was wise not to have argued with Commander. He could easily have been shot down and no enquiry would have been held. The government Veterinary Doctor Satinder Pal Singh was shot down in broad daylight near the bus stand in Gurdaspur by two Army men; his brother a Government high school teacher Shri Kripal Singh sent telegrams to everyone from the President and Prime Minister to the Deputy Commissioner about this atrocity. First Major Grari and Lt. General Gouri Shankar denied military involvement but when supplied proofs they sent a message to the Distt. Magistrate admitting their involvement. “Till today” Shri Kirpal Singh said, “no action has been taken; no enquiry has been made by the civil administration why a government officer was shot down.”