The deaths have taken place, also, mention the time of death and say “death due to firearms.” My boss said that postmortems should take time, I told him to do whatever he wanted. My example set the precedent in Punjab. Five minutes a postmortem, five minutes a postmortem.
After obtaining their postmortem reports, police cremate their Sikh victims as “unidentified bodies™ at municipal cremation grounds, An attendant at the cremation ground in Patti commented on the alarming rise such cremations: Unclaimed bodies have continuously been burnt here, Previously, it used to happen once in a while, In the last 45 years, it has been common, They only cremate. No one cares to take away the remains.
“Disappearances in Punjab” also explores the case of Sikh human rights activist, Jaswant Singh Khalra. According to the findings of Mr. Khalra, police have killed and cremated over 25,000 Sikhs in the manner descended above, Mr. Khalra arrived at this number by visiting municipal cremation grounds and tallying up the number unidentified bodies” seed on registers. During press conference announcing these findings, the Amritsar district police chief publicly threatened Mr, Khalra saying “We have made 25,000 disappear, It would be easy to make one more disappear,” The police chief followed through on his threat. Mr. Khalra was abducted by Indian police in front of his home in the presence of witnesses at 9:15 am on September 6, 1995, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have taken up his case, On October 19, 1995, 65 Members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister P, V, and Narasimha Rao demanding Khalra’s release. India has yet to respond. Mr, Khalra’s whereabouts remains unknown. [Courtesy: Council of Khalistan).
Article extracted from this publication >> March 20, 1996
