Hoshiarpur, Punjab: Commemorating 66th World Human Rights day, the Dal Khalsa will hold a rally and march against forced disappearances, fake encounters, illegal detentions and inhuman torture in Punjab since 1984.
Addressing the press meet party leader H S Dhami said to give the victims’ of state repression a voice, theirs group with the support of Damdami Taksal and Sikhs for Human Rights would be organizing the rally at Amritsar on December 10 on the occasion of World Human Rights Day. Explaining the rationale behind the rally, he said it’s an attempt to make the victims’ visible with a hope that their pain, anguish and wait for justice will be acknowledged and the violators punished.
Dal Khalsa to mark Human Rights Day (2014)
He said since 1984, the Indian security forces have caused widespread human rights violations under the garb of stemming armed resistance movement in Punjab. He alleged that countless civilians and suspected militants were summarily executed in staged “encounter” killings or have disappeared while in police custody, thousands were detained without trial and subjected to torture. “We believe that these abuses were not random but have been carried out as a
matter of state policy”.
Today on the occasion of martyrdom day of Guru Teg Bahadur, the leaders of the organization pointed out that Ninth Guru sacrificed his life to uphold human rights and religious freedom of the common men.
He pointed out that the sacrifice of the Guru was unparalleled in the annals of the recent history. He said the guru tasted martyrdom to fight against tyranny and to protect the oppressed class irrespective of their religion.
Flanked by party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh and former general secretary Dr Manjinder Singh Jandi, Dhami pointed out that in the past three decades every attempt to bring justice to victims, hold the security forces accountable for crimes, has been frustrated by powerful persons linked with the previous administration that perpetrated the horrible abuses in the “mistaken belief” of defending the integrity of the state.
Claiming that people in the corridors of power have been vocal against the movement for restoration of human rights and rule of law, many of those who designed and implemented the state policies in Punjab are still active today.
Quoting the message of Secretary General of the United Nations Ban-ki-Moon in which he has termed the involuntary disappearances as a worst kind of violation of human rights, Kanwar Pal Singh said what could be more painful to a mother and father than the fact that even after a gap of so many years, they do not know whether their child is still alive or was killed extra-judicially by the central para-military forces or by the state police working under impunity? He asserted that it’s necessary to prosecute all individuals who formulated, planned and organized grave human rights abuses in the name of national security.
He said family members of those whose members have disappeared or killed in a fake encounter or still serving long incarceration would be participating in the rally. He said at the conclusion of the march an ardas at Akal Takht would be performed. He said the central theme of the function is to revive the dying hopes of justice.
Others who were present include Ranbir Singh, Gurdeep Singh and SYP head Noblejit Singh and Paramjit Singh.