Human Rights in Punjab

Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch
recently wrote an article stating that although the Indian government
has recently acknowledged its role in the 1984 pogroms, it still has a
long way to go in addressing the systematic perpetration of human
rights violations by Indian security forces.
Last
month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologized for the 1984 anti-Sikh
pogroms, saying that it […]

Bringing the focus back to systematic human rights abuses committed by the Punjab police during the counter-insurgency of the 1980s and 1990s, a man allegedly killed in a police encounter has resurfaced:

[Jagdeesh Singh Deesha] was declared dead in one such encounter in 1993 for which 24 police officials, including a serving SSP, got awards and promotions. […]

After being exonerated by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), Senior Superintendent of Police Farooq Khan was reinstated on September 14. He had been suspended in 2003 on charges of five fake killings in Pathribal in 2000.
The Pathribal killings were the joint response of the Indian Army and the police to the Chittisinghpora massacre. […]

A recent article in Frontline discusses the reaction of the survivors of the 1984 pogroms to the Nanavati Report, also mentioning ENSAAF.
The
Frontline article observes that the Nanavati Commission report has
recast the 1984 massacres in a way that is palatable to the state. This
cover-up by the state and its failure to acknowledge its atrocities
have had a lasting […]

In another case of “disappearance” by Punjab police, Anil Jain is missing five days after his wife saw him taken into police custody.
According
to his wife, Anil Jain was taken into police custody on September 15
and has not been seen since. His wife, Sangeeta Jain then filed a writ
petition with the Punjab and Haryana High Court, […]

More than fifteen years
after Palwinder Singh of Kapurthala was killed in a fake encounter, the
Punjab and Haryana High Court has finally ordered a CBI probe into his
death. The court issused these orders after Darshan Singh, Palwinder
Singh’s father, filed a petition to establish an independent probe into
the case. Darshan Singh says that the Punjab police picked […]

On September 12, the Delhi government announced a Rs 1.25 lakh compensation
for each of 2,996 people injured in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms.
This decision by the Delhi Cabinet was made after the Delhi High Court
ordered the state government to compensate those injured based on a
plea filed by Manjit Singh, a victim of the pogroms. The government
decided not […]

On September 8, Balwinder Singh, a man under trial, was beaten by Punjab police officers at a Ludhiana court and prevented from appearing before the judge.
An
Indian Express correspondent saw seven to eight police officers shoving
Balwinder Singh into a van. He shouted to the correspendent:

My
name is Balwinder Singh. I am facing murder charges. Today I […]

Amnesty International has sent a briefing paper to the UK Presidency of the European Union stating that India should abolish the death penalty. The Amnesty International paper suggested that the EU use the September 7 EU-India summit to encourage India to set an example for the rest of Asia and abolish the death penalty.

“As […]

Ten years ago on September 6, 1995, Indian security forces abducted human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra because of his courageous work exposing the “disappearances” and killings of thousands of Sikhs in the state of Punjab. Indian security forces subsequently tortured and murdered Mr. Khalra in late October 1995. A decade on, the Indian government has failed […]