NHRC lists fake killings in Punjab

[Guest mehtab]

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory...lings~in~Punjab

NHRC lists fake killings in Punjab

Swati Maheshwari

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 (Chandigarh):

The National Human Rights Commission has released a list of more than 700 people who went missing in Punjab during the years of militancy.

It is the first official admission of the largescale human rights abuses in the state.

Police excesses

Jasbir Singh, who belongs to a village near Amritsar, has waited 12 years seeking punishment for those responsible for his brother's death.

In 1992, Jasbir's 27-year-old-brother was working in the fields when he was picked up by the Majitha police.

No one knew why the police had taken him away.

But disappearance of young men was common during the years of terrorism in Punjab.

Jasbir's brother was tortured and kept imprisoned for nearly 70 days before his family was informed that he had been killed in a fight.

His family did not even receive his body.

Despair

"We were told to go collect his ashes. Then we got his ashes from the Durgiana temple, which we immersed in water. He can't come back but at least those who killed him should be punished," says Jasbir Singh.

After more than ten years of despair to get justice, Jasbir has found his brother's name on the NHRC's list of 700 youths who went missing.

In the fi

rst such admission, this list is evidence of the largescale human rights violations perpetuated by the police in its zeal to crush militancy.

Losses on both sides

But police say they did not deliberately -- innocent people. They say even their families had to endure personal losses.

More than 2000 policemen died during the militancy years in Punjab.

Fourteen years ago, Gurnaam Singh lost his father, a police inspector, and three brothers when 15 militants attacked their house in a village in Ropar district.

"Terrorists killed many policemen. They finished many homes, those who did it were killed, but it hasn't brought us peace. We will never get our families back," says Gurnaam Singh, a terrorist victim.

Though time has healed Punjab in some ways, scars of those terrible years linger in the minds of those who lost their loved ones.

[nanosecond]

Yeah I watched this on NDTV too.

Nothing more will be done.....NHRC is not an independent org..

But let's hope......the guilty gets punished

[nanosecond]

NHRO’s list on false encounters ‘vindicates’ Khalra

An excerpt from:

Rashmi Talwar, Tribune India

Tuesday, 20th July 2004

Amritsar - Mr Bahal Singh lost his 25-year-old graduate, married son Nishan Singh a resident of Ranian village under the Lopoke police station. He was pursuing his studies in Khalsa College at the time. On June 18, 1989 a CRPF party surrounded his house and stripped Bahal Singh (father) naked and forced him to disclose whereabouts of his son who was sleeping near a tubewell when he was arrested and taken to BR Model School Interrogation Center. Two days later Amritsar’s SSP announced that Nishan was a BTF terrorist. Nishan confessed to it as he was tortured. In his last meeting with his father at Sadar Police Station Nishan had told his father that he was innocent. Fourteen-days later he was produced at a magistrates house quietly. The same evening Bahal heard on radio a news of his son’s death in an encounter. The police claimed that he was killed in crossfire with terrorists and was cremated unidentified.

Jagir Kaur mother of Harinder Singh (22) in her report stated that her son used to visit Harmandar Sahib and other shrines regularly became a suspect and was picked up on July 16, 1990 by the police. He was produced before a magistrate when the police claimed to have arrested him after an encounter. On August 30 Harinder Singh along with Parminder were to be presented before a court but never done their trust death in crossfire with terrorists was announced in an encounter in next morning’s newspaper.

Kuldeep Singh (26) of Sarhali Khurd was trapped in the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar and arrested under the NSA till

1989 as reported by his uncle Harjeet Singh. Even after his release the police continued raids and in March 1991 newspapers reported his death as a militant committing suicide by consuming cyanide.

Mr Chain Singh Dhillon lost his both sons Ajinderpal Singh a lance Naik Army in and his nephew Kanwal Nain Singh residents of Mane ki Patti in Kasel village. Belonging to a family of freedom fighters Ajinderpal was on leave when he became a victim of false case in 1989 and eliminated on March 21, 1991 according to a newspaper report.

Pathetic is the case of Beer Singh (30) who according to his father Mr Virsa Singh was killed when he had gone to see a film in Amritsar. His friend informed his parents of the shooting of their son at the Sultanwind road and cremated as unidentified.

Gurinder Singh a polio afflicted a high school student was arrested on August 5, 1991 by an Army patrol and reportedly committed suicide when surrounded by Gharinda police station officers. Two boys were cremated together as unidentified. These and many such cases have been recorded in detail in a book Reduced to Ashes - the Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab written by Mr Ram Narayan Kumar with Amrik Singh, Ashok Aggarwal and Jaskaran Kaur a 635-page book and released last year.

The Human Rights Organisation (NHRO) led by Mr Surinder Singh Gharyala, today welcomed the initiative of the National Human Rights Commission to admit and publish details of 2097 persons cremated as unidentified killed in encounters by the Punjab Police and para-military forces in the state from June 1984 to December 1994.

Mr Ghariyala said the four full page advertisements in regional and national dailies enlisting those who had died thus and inviting applications for claims had vindicated the exposure made by late Mr Jaswant Singh Khalra who allegedly was killed by vested interests for exposing the mass killings and cremations. “It is a historic leap towards justice for Jaswant Singh Khalra’s struggle”, they added.

T

he three lists are from Police districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Majitha.

A meeting of the NHRO’s office-bearers including Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra wife of Jaswant Khalra held here today stated that the said notice makes a mockery of the reported statement of the then police chief, that "the missing boys had fled to foreign countries and the police did not -- them and Jaswant Khalra was a liar."

They said the list released was the same that Jaswant Singh Khalra had presented to the Canadian Parliament in front of 51 MPs in the house of Representatives there in 1994.

The NHRO has expressed apprehension that all accused officers and other police personnel involved in these false encounters would try to suppress the claims by all means. Hence these officers should be identified and transferred to far flung places so that they were unable to put pressure on the kin of victims.

[MyFirstLoveSikhism]

Please allow me to paste my APPEAL regarding this issue

made on a prominent Sikh forum a few days ago. My aim to do this is to ignite some consciousness and inspire young Sikhs.

Sat Sri Akal ji,

Yours is a kind of post that brings silent tears.

The amazing thing is that all the crimes against humanity in today's world has seen U.N.O. or countries like USA coming to the rescue of the victims and providing them relief, rehab and justice.

Be it Pol Pot's Cambodia, Rawandan genocide of Tutsis, President Milosevic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herezgovina, Saddam's atrocities on Kurds, East Timor, Somalia, you name it and we have some kind of International Agency like International Court of Justice etc. working on it to provide justice to the victims. Or at least there has been a big hullabaloo in different parliaments!

The cases of atrocities on Sikhs in last two decades tantamount to worst crimes against humanity. But no one has been arrested and tried in courts. It was such a well-planned conspiracy to commit a genocide.

When I was growing up, I used to devour every material on contemporary Sikh martyrs and how Punjab Police and other agencies were committing a genocide in Punjab. So gruesome and horrifying were the details! How Sikhs between the ages of 16 to 35 were collected from villages, their hands and feet tied and thrown into Harike-Patan, Tarn Taran, to be the feed of carnivorous fish. There are so many more examples. Then I read about CBI which on the directions of the Supreme Court and High Court unearthed fake killings, flimsy encounters (some are really funny showing foolishness of the Police), extortion racket

s and land-grabbing. The amazing thing is that many of the Policemen, SPOs, Police Cats (touts) etc. who could not bear the psychological brunt of killing so many innocents came forward and become approved witnesses, submitted affidavits against their seniors.

And in Delhi they garlanded Sikhs with burning tyres and tubes and let them slowly burn to death, raped young Sikh girls and WHATNOT!!!

Then I read a lot of Sikh philosophy and history and found that the words SIKH and MARTYRDOM are synonymous. And you know ji, I am not saddened by the deaths of so many Sikhs. No, I am not. I beleive that as a Sikh it is best to die for a cause than to have a die on a couch eating popcorns while watching cricket on TV.

But I am too pained and tormented by seeing so many Sikh youth with shorn hair, consuming too much alcohol, tobbacco, opium and whatnot! Many a times, I feel helpless, but then I am reminded of the greatness of Sikhs and Sikhism and I feel encouraged. But certainly these boys and girls can't be the children of Gurus and martyrs. May be, every grown-up Sikh at that time lived as a true Sikh by dying for a cause. And hence, what remains is such people of no character.

Don't ever be disheartened, I say it to myself and everybody(especially Sikh children). Singhs will keep on taking birth and history stands testimony to the fact that the wombs of Sikh-mothers bear better Sikhs everytime the older ones have been torturously killed.

We are a community of deeewana people, deeply in love with God and His Word. Life and death do not bother the children of The Timeless One. What should bother us is our character and conduct.

Charhdi Kala to all, and do whatever little in your own ways you can to bring justice to such innocents.