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Never heard anything against Izhar Alam: Badal

October 30, 2011 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Jalandhar, Punjab (October 30, 2011): It could be termed as another set back to the efforts of various Human Rights organizations to secure justice for victims of mass level human rights violations, in Punjab as the nexus between violators and political set-up is turning into political power sharing alliance.

Current ruling party of Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) which is also called Badal Dal formed government in Punjab after 1997 assembly elections and enjoyed power for full term of five years. At that time this party promised to bring violators to justice, but soon after forming government it started accommodating them. This party has totally collaborated with the Indian state against Sikhs in Indo-Sikh political conflict.

Now Badal Dal is introducing suspects of mass violations to electoral politics. Former Director General of Police and founder of infamous “Alam Sena” Mohammad Izhar Alam, who is considered to be responsible for eliminating civilian Sikh population in fake or stage encounters, is appointed as constituency in charge of Malerkotla and the former top cop has even started campaigning in the area. He is proposed candidate of Badal Dal from Malerkotla constituency. Parkash Singh Badal, who is chief minister of Punjab and patron of SAD (Badal) attempted to give a clean chit to Alam.

Badal is reported to have: “I am not aware of anything against Alam. I have never heard anything against Alam that he was involved in killing of any innocents and nobody has ever told me anything like this about him. Show me any evidence against him,” Badal said while defending Alam’s proposed candidature from Malerkotla.

Badal was speaking to media after holding Sangat Darshan here at Kapurthala.

“When pointed out that it was SAD’s key ally Damdami Taksal led Sant Samaj, which had leveled serious allegations against Alam and had even demanded his prosecution, visibly uncomfortable Badal retorted that in the past nobody ever spoke against Alam or pointed out any wrong doing on his part” reports Times of India (TOI).

While Badal feigned ignorance about Alam even a cable sent from US embassy in New Delhi in 2005 mentioned about Alam and his “Alam Sena” which the cable said staged encounter killings in Punjab. The cable, which had been exposed by WikiLeaks, said Alam assembled a large, personal paramilitary force of approximately 150 men known as the “Black Cats” or “Alam Sena” (“Alam’s Army”) that included cashiered police officers and rehabilitated Sikh terrorists. The group had reach throughout the Punjab and is alleged to have had carte blanche in carrying out possibly thousands of staged “encounter killings.”

Commenting on this situation Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur of Sikhs for Human Rights (SFHR) said that the situation is turning to be alarming. He said that impunity levels are very high in Punjab and thus mass violators are enjoying prime posts in armed forces. While referring to a Human Rights Watch report, he said that India’s human rights commissions have drastically failed to nail the culprits, rather these forums have worked in accordance with the state’s policy of “protecting the killers”.

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Related Topics: Alam Sena, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Izhar Alam, Jaspal Singh Manjhpur (Advocate), Punjab Police Atrocities, Sikhs for Human Rights, Wikileaks

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