Brad Adams, Executive Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch, addressed a press conference in Amritsar, co-hosted by the Association of Families of the Disappeared in Punjab (AFDP) and the Committee for Information and Initiative in Punjab (CIIP). Adams expressed concern over the inordinate delay in the proceedings of the Punjab illegal cremations matter, pending before […]
Ashok Singhal, a top leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) whose party leaders were cited by victims as leading massacres of Muslims in Gujarat in early 2002, warned that “If there’s another effort to create another Pakistan in India, all of India would become another Gujarat.” He was speaking at a felicitation ceremony for […]
The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) is planning to go online within a couple of months. The website will provide information on the PSHRC as well as allow people to check the status of their cases:
At an average, the PSHRC receives between 200 and 300 complaints per day and the petitioners have to visit […]
The Tribune today, published in Chandigarh, India, has an article on the court case of the January 1995 disappearance of Jagraj Singh, a student activist. The Punjab police had harassed Jagraj while he was alive because of his political activities, filing fifteen cases against him; he was acquitted in all of them. Mohinder Singh, Jagraj’s father, […]
The World Social Forum, held in Bombay, India, concluded today with a seven kilometer march. More than 100,000 people attended the different panels on globalization, human rights, and other issues.
Victims of state abuses from Punjab, Gujarat, Kashmir and Nagaland all spoke at the panel on Fighting Impunity in India. Mrs. Paramjit Kaur, the wife of […]
Federal police have arrested 12 people on charges of murder and gang rape during the 2002 Gujarat massacre against Muslims. The CBI had taken over because of the failure of the local police to properly investigate the crimes:
The CBI was asked to follow up the case after India’s National Human Rights Commission came in support […]
The invitation extended to Gujarat Chief Minister Modi to do a pride rally from New York to Los Angeles, first mentioned at the NR Gujarati Foundation conference in Ahmedabad, has led to protests in the US:
In a letter addressed to ‘Our Gujarati brethren’ and written by Ranjit Singh, a US-based publisher who brings out the […]
The Central Review Committee on Prevention of Terrorism Act will give its decision on January 23 on a case regarding whether the Committee can intervene in the courts and decide if a POTA case should be withdrawn.
The attorney for the Central Government argued that, especially in light of the recent Amendments to POTA, the […]
The Sunday Express has an article on the Sangh-affiliated Vanbandhu Parishad (VP), or Friends of Tribal Society, schools being established and run in tribal areas. BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has credited these schools with expanding the membership of his party. With former Bollywood star Hema Malini as the brand ambassador of the schools, the […]
The Indian Supreme Court halted the executions of two men convicted of planning the December 2001 attack against the Indian parliament. These death sentences were the first convictions under the controversial and draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA):
[Mohammad] Afzal and [Shaukat Hussain] Guru have already lost an appeal against their sentence in a lower court […]