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Article on Gobind Ram Ignores Human Rights Abuses
June 2, 2004 | Comments Off on Article on Gobind Ram Ignores Human Rights Abuses
In an article praising Gobind Ram, the Punjab police officer killed in 1990 by militants, B. Raman completely ignores the reality of police operations in Punjab during the counterinsurgency movement:
Gobind Ram was an exceptionally brave police officer who distinguished himself in the campaign against terrorism in Punjab.
Reports published in this period by several national and international human rights organizations show that security forces, including Gobind Ram, used forced disappearances, custodial torture and extrajudicial executions as routine aspects of its counter-insurgency operations. Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the police counter-insurgency operation as “the most extreme example of a policy in which the end appeared to justify any and all means, including torture and murder.” While the government of India vehemently denied the accusations, it refused to allow UN human rights mechanisms and non-governmental organizations to visit Punjab to investigate and verify the truth.
As part of its counter-insurgency operation, the Indian government passed several draconian laws that sanctioned police impunity. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) of 1987 established in camera courts and authorized detention of persons in a “disturbed area” on mere suspicion, and detainees were presumed guilty until proven innocent for specified charges; the Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Special Powers Act of 1983 empowered security forces to search premises and arrest people without warrant. Section 4 gave them the power to shoot to kill a suspected terrorist, with prosecutorial immunity granted in Section 7. The National Security Act of 1980, amended in 1984 and 1987, authorized detention of suspected terrorists without trial for two years in Punjab. In 1988, the Parliament dissolved the Punjab State Assembly and passed the Fifty-ninth Amendment to the Indian Constitution, authorizing the extension of President’s rule beyond one year, and suspending due process guarantees for rights relating to life and liberty and freedom of speech and association in Punjab. This amendment also suspended the writ of habeas corpus. The amendment was not repealed until 1989.
In November 1995, based on petitions by the widow of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra and the Committee for Information and Initiative in Punjab, the Supreme Court instituted two inquiries to be conducted by the CBI. The first inquiry aimed to determine what happened to Khalra. The second inquiry intended to establish the substance of the allegations that Khalra had made before he disappeared, regarding disappearances leading to illegal cremations conducted by the Punjab police. In July 1996, the report of the first inquiry held nine officers of the Punjab police responsible for the abduction of Khalra. In December 1996, the report of the second inquiry disclosed “flagrant violation of human rights on a mass scale,” and 2097 illegal cremations at three sites in Amritsar district alone.
In May 2003, the Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP) released the first volume of its Final Report, titled Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab. This 634-page volume contains extensive documentation and analysis of hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killing of victims by the security forces in Punjab during the political unrest of the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as an analysis of legislative, judicial and administrative impunity. Included in this first volume are more than 500 testimonies by the families of the victims describing 672 cases of extrajudicial executions by the police in the district of Amritsar alone. As Peter Rosenblum notes in his preface to this volume, the careful analysis by the authors allows the reader to “pierce through the thick veils of ideology, intrigue and ‘state security’ that obscure our understanding of the campaign to pacify Punjab.”
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