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True Face of Indian Democracy
Human Rights Watch in a new report released on October 18, 2007 said that impunity in India has been rampant in Punjab, where security forces committed large-scale human rights violations without any accountability. The 123-page report, "Protecting the Killers: A Policy of Impunity in Punjab, India," examines the challenges faced by victims and their relatives in pursuing legal avenues for accountability for the human rights abuses perpetrated by the state officials during the government’s counterinsurgency campaign.
In its counterinsurgency operations in Punjab from 1984 to 1995, Indian security forces committed serious human rights abuses against tens of thousands of Sikhs. None of the key architects of this counterinsurgency strategy who bear substantial responsibility for these atrocities have been brought to justice.
The report discusses the case of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a leading human rights defender in Punjab who was abducted and then murdered in October 1995 by government officials after being held in illegal detention for almost two months. Despite credible eyewitness testimony that police chief KPS Gill was directly involved in interrogating Khalra in illegal detention just days prior to Khalra’s murder, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has thus far refused to investigate or prosecute Gill. In September 2006, Khalra’s widow, Paramjit Kaur, filed a petition in the Punjab & Haryana High Court calling on the CBI to take action against Gill. More than a year later, she is still waiting for a hearing on the merits.
“The government’s illegal and inhuman policies in the name of security have allowed a culture of impunity to prevail that has brutalized its police and security forces,” said Kaur.
Victims and their families seeking justice face severe challenges, including prolonged trials, biased prosecutors, an unresponsive judiciary, police intimidation and harassment of witnesses, and the failure to charge senior government officials despite evidence of their role in the abuses.
After Mohinder Singh’s son Jugraj Singh was killed in an alleged faked armed encounter between security forces and separatists in January 1995, he pursued numerous avenues of justice. He brought his case before the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the CBI Special Court, but no police officer was charged. A CBI investigation found that Jugraj Singh had been killed and cremated by the police. However, 11 years and a few inquiry reports later, the CBI court ended Mohinder Singh’s pursuit for accountability by dismissing his case in 2006.
Mohinder Singh describes his interactions with the CBI: “On one occasion when [the officer] from the CBI came to my house, he told me that I wasn’t going to get anything out of this. Not justice and not even compensation. He further said that: ‘I see you running around pursuing your case. But you shouldn’t get into a confrontation with the police. You have to live here and they can pick you up at any time.’ He was indirectly threatening me.”
Human Rights Watch and Ensaaf expressed concern that the Indian government continues to cite the counterinsurgency operations in Punjab as a model for preserving national integrity.
