• Categories

  • 1984
  • General
  • NHRC
  • Punjab
  • Uncategorized
• 
  

• Archives

  • August 2008
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
  • February 2004
  • January 2004
  • December 2003
  • May 2003

Over the July 4th weekend in the Amritsar district of Punjab, the Dhariwal police arrested one constable and suspended three others on allegations of abuse inflicted upon a pregnant woman, Simranjit Kaur, and her father-in-law, Tarsem Singh. These individuals were identified as constable Sukhpal Singh, head constable Chanchal Singh, constable Gurdev Singh, and driver Raghubir Singh.

The beating resulted in a stillbirth for seven-month pregnant, 21-year-old Simranjit Kaur, who is now recovering in the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital. The four policeman allegedly entered Kaur’s home with “a score to settle” against her husband, Kamaljit Singh Ladda. Kaur was assaulted while attempting to save her father-in-law Tarsem Singh from attack.

While seemingly condemning this act, DGP S. S. Virk himself has been accused of committing serious human rights violations, such as torture and extrajudicial executions, in Punjab during the police counter-insurgency operations of 1984-1995. Virk remains in office on request of the Punjabi Government.

Ensaaf has released the June 2006 issue of its quarterly newsletter, the Ensaaf DISPATCH, available at:
http://www.ensaaf.org/dispatch-june06.pdf

This DISPATCH includes the following articles:

* US Extradites Sikh Activist Kulvir Singh Barapind
* The Disappearance of Rights Attorney S.S. Bhatti
* International Groups Call for the Prosecution of K.P.S. Gill for
Murdering J.S. Khalra
* UN Human Rights Council Approves Disappearance Treaty: Will India
Comply?
* Ensaaf Welcomes its Advisory Council
* Ensaaf Founders Win Echoing Green Award

A recent article by Zee News discusses Harvinder Kaur’s struggle for justice. She lost her husband and other relatives in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms; on April 29, a Delhi court finally began recording evidence.

When Harvinder Kaur initially attempted to file a FIR twelve years ago, the East Delhi police refused to register it. The FIR was finally registered in 1996, and named six people including the late Congress leader HKL Bhagat. He was later discharged from the case for lack of evidence.

Based on Harvinder Kaur’s affadavit, the Jain committee recommended the registration of the case. The court began recording Harvinder Kaur’s statements on April 29. Five Congress workers have been charge-sheeted for the killing of her husband, her son, and her son in law.

In her deposition, Kaur said she was witness to the incident in which a mob, allegedly led by local congress leaders, stabbed and hacked to death with swords three members of her family on November 2, 1984.

The delays and problems with prosecution that Harvinder Kaur experienced are typical of cases relating to the 1984 pogroms. Her testimony also demonstrates the role Congress party politicians had in organizing the violence, and how delays in filing FIRs and other tactics prevented the prosecution of perpetrators.

Twenty Years of Impunity: The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India reveals the systematic and organized manner in which state institutions, such as the Delhi Police, and Congress (I) officials perpetrated mass murder in November 1984 and later justified the violence in inquiry proceedings. The report demonstrates that police officers not only passively observed the violence, but also actively participated in the attacks and made promises of impunity to assailants. The report also examines the role of the Congress Party in organizing the massacres, delivering inflammatory speeches instructing attendees to kill Sikhs, and distributing weapons, money, and voter lists identifying Sikhs and their properties. Grave lapses in police investigations, delays in filing cases, the failure to identify and investigate prosecution witnesses, the deliberate misrecording of witness statements, and the failure to comply with legal procedures precluded effective prosecutions against major perpetrators. 

In other news related to the 1984 pogroms, Rs 26 lakh in compensation was paid to families of victims of the 1984 pogroms on April 24.

Mr Amarjit Pal, SDM, gave cheques to 13 kin of the victim of riots. A sum of Rs 2 lakh each was given to the victim families.

Mr Pal said another Rs 14 lakh would be distributed among the families of the riot-hit soon.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered the Punjab Government to pay Rs 2.5 lakh in compensation to each of the the families of forty-five people killed under police custody from 1984 to 1994.

On May 15, counsel for the Punjab Government appeared before the NHRC and stated that forty-five people had been identified as falling within its November 2004 order.

In its first order (dated November 11, 2004), the commission had granted a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh each to the next of kin of 109 persons who had admittedly died in police custody. The commission found Punjab accountable and responsible for the infringement of the right to life of the persons.

On March 8, the NHRC granted compensation to thirty-eight people; so far, twenty families of the deceased have been paid. The NHRC has so far awarded compensation to 194 people in the Punjab mass cremations case.

On May 12, 1994, Indian security forces abducted Punjab human rights attorney Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti in broad daylight. Over the following weeks, security forces clandestinely detained and tortured Mr. Bhatti. Twelve years after disappearing him, the Indian Government continues to deny justice to Mr. Bhatti’s family. On May 12, 2006, the anniversary of Mr. Bhatti’s disappearance, ENSAAF submitted a communication to the UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, providing a detailed summary of Mr. Bhatti’s case, identifying key perpetrators, and describing the operation of an unofficial interrogation center.

On May 1, 2006, ENSAAF, Human Rights Watch, REDRESS, and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice wrote to the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), calling on the CBI to investigate and prosecute former Director General of Police K.P.S. Gill for the murder of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. Over ten years ago, members of the Punjab police operating under Mr. Gill abducted, tortured, and murdered Mr. Khalra because of his courageous work in exposing the disappearances, custodial deaths, and secret cremations of thousands of Sikhs in Punjab. Given the weight of the evidence that emerged during the trial of his subordinates, under international law, there is a clear legal case to be made against K.P.S. Gill.

Visit our page on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra

On March 30, seven victims on the 1984 pogroms received supplementary compensation as ordered by the Supreme Court.

The East Singhbhum deputy commissioner today distributed cheques worth over Rs 7.74 lakh to the dependants of the riot victims.

Parminder Kaur of Mango was inconsolable while receiving a cheque of Rs 1.25 lakh from East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Nitin Madan Kulkarni, as part of the compensation to the victims of the 1984 Sikh riots.

After receiving the cheque, Parminder recounted the moment when her father (a trader in Mango) rushed to his house after sustaining serious injuries in his stomach.

The Indian government continues to improperly label the 1984 pogroms as riots, implying violence on both sides. The label of a “riot” not only mischaracterizes the massacre, but it also purposefully masks its most brutal dimensions, discussed in detail in ENSAAF’s report Twenty Years of Impunity:

(1) The targeting of a religious group for murder and extermination, as evidenced by:
a. Slogans calling for the death of all Sikhs;
b. Repeated attacks by gangs to ensure that all Sikhs were killed;
c. Direct targeting of Sikh property;
d. Destruction of symbols and structures of the Sikh faith; and
e. Perpetration of other crimes such as rape and sexual assault, beatings and physical attacks, looting and stealing, extortion, acts of humiliation such as stripping, and mutilation of corpses;
(2) Police participation and instigation of the murders, as well as manipulation of records and destruction of evidence precluding criminal accountability; and
(3) Organized and systematic implemention of the carnage, characterized by:
a. A systematic and uniform method of killing;
b. Public meetings the night before the initiation of the massacre where leaders distributed weapons and exhorted attendees to kill Sikhs;
c. Organized dissemination of rumors;
d. Effective identification of Sikhs through lists;
e. Organized transportation of gangs of assailants; and
f. Large-scale provision and distribution of weapons and kerosene.

Ramgarh police officers have been accused of torturing a Dalit, Titu, after framing him in a false case of theft.

Residents of Bhaura village, Ludhiana, demanded an investigation into the incident; on April 17, SSP AS Rai ordered an inquiry into the abuse.

President of Vishwa Guru Ravidas Mission, Shiv Ram Saroay, and Rashtriya Vikas Manch president Gurinder Sood have appealed to the SC/ST Commission and the Punjab State Human Rights Commission to look into the matter.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman AS Anand has announced that the Punjab government has identified 570 more victims of illegal cremation in the Punjab Mass Cremations case. The total number of identified people illegally cremated by the Punjab police is now 1,273.

824 bodies remain unidentified out of a total list of 2,097 victims. These victims draw from the original list submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation, comprising police abductions leading to illegal cremations in three crematoria in Amrtisar district. Amritsar is one of 17 districts in Punjab.

In December 1996, the Supreme Court referred the matter of police abductions leading to disappearances and secret cremations in Punjab to the Commission, observing that the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) report disclosed “flagrant violations of human rights on a mass scale”. Read more about the Punjab mass cremations case proceeding before the Commission.

ENSAAF has released the March 2006 issue of its quarterly Dispatch, available at: 

The Dispatch contains articles on:

*The murder of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra: A summary of the November 2005 order (The complete order and a more extensive analysis can be read at
 http://www.ensaaf.org/khalra.html)

*Arbitrary detention of Sikh author Ajmer Singh

*Department of State releases 2005 Country Report on Human Rights in India

*News Flashes

*The Widow Colony premieres in Los Angeles, CA

*Thirtieth Anniversary of Argentina’s Coup

• Blogroll

  • Ensaaf