WSN Service
CHANDIGARH: A strongly worded letter by the United Nation’s Center for Human Rights, citing World Sikh News and a London based Gurmukhi news weekly, listed half dozen cases of blatant violations of the basic civil liberties of Sikhs in India,
India authorities reacted in their predictable authoritarian fashion, and raided the house of a prominent journalist Sukhdev Singh at midnight recently.
What they wanted to do was not to open an inquiry into the specific actions cited by the report against the security forces but to find out how the information “leaked” out and to cover up the atrocities.
The Center in a hard hitting leer has asked Delhi to send its comments on half a dozen cases of alleged abuses of human rights of Sikhs. These instances were picked up by the Center from World Sikh News and Des Pardes. The Center also asked the Govt of India as to why a set of draconian laws were being used against minority communities like ‘Sikhs while no Hindus had been detained under these laws. It also wanted to know for how long rioters responsible for mass murders of Sikhs in 1984 would remain unpunished.
‘Specific cases listed in the UN report are Justice H.S. Sodhi’s report on 780 youths in Amritsar jail without charge and who were invariably tortured before being arrested by the police. The under trials told the judge that they were repeatedly arrested after being let off by the courts.
Another case pertained to the torture of 50 year old Surjit Kaur of Ranawali village of Valtoha police station and the torture of Gurdev Kaur and Gurmit Kaur. The rapes of Rachpal Kaur and Kartar Kaur by the police were also mentioned. Yet another case pertains to the rape of a pregnant woman of Nabipur village in Dera Baba Nanak by Border ‘Security Force men.
It also mentioned the torture of schoolboys Jagtar Singh and Hardip Singh of Amritsar.
Instead of questioning the security forces responsible for these abuses, the Punjab Govt had set its intelligence agencies to find out how these reports were sent to the World Sikh News and Des Pardes. The police raided the house of journalist Sukhdey Singh last month and again soon after senior officials received reports from the Union home ministry for comments from the Punjab Govt so that the allegations in the UN report could be countered.
The partisan nature of the so called national press in India was also exposed in this sordid episode. Instead of seeking information about the abuses cited in the report, or demanding an inquiry into the raids on the journalist and the allegations cited by the report, the Times of India mentioned that the “sensationalist World Sikh News had reported on the incidents, and backed the high handedness of the police.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 18, 1990
