Chandigarh, Punjab (September 09, 2013): As per media reports (dated: Sept. 08): in a startling revelation, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) has told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that: the name of whosoever went abroad during the period of militancy in Punjab, was mentioned in the list of ‘hard core terrorists’.
It is learnt that Shingara Singh through his counsel Advocate H C Arora had moved the High Court seeking directions to Punjab police to delete his name from the list of “non-hardcore terrorists” maintained in the records of Police Station, Behram (District SBS Nagar). Singh said he was never involved in any criminal activity. The High Court had sought response from the Punjab government in this regard.
Bhagwant Singh, in his reply filed in the HC, said “during the period of terrorism, all persons who went abroad, as per report of Crime Branch, CID Security and secret information, their names were mentioned in the list of hardcore terrorists”.
He however admitted that there is no record showing the involvement of Shingara Singh in any such activities and added that Punjab Police had no objection if his name was deleted from the list of “non-hardcore terrorists”.
Taking serious exception to the contents of the affidavit filed by the DSP, Justice Ram Chander Gutpa, verbally expressed shock and dismay over the conduct of Punjab Police in not voluntarily deleting the name of the petitioner from the list and instead leaving it to the HC to order deletion.
It is notable that the so-called black list of Sikhs is more like a harassment tactics aimed at harassing and discouraging the Sikh diaspora sections and thereby curb their activism.
It is notable that in January 2010 a 2-year-old New Zealand boy and his Punjab-born Sikh mother were barred from entering India after their names appeared on a so-called blacklist. The Sikh woman’s husband was active in Sikh diaspora activism in New Zealand and his wife and son were blacklisted by India supposedly for his involvement in protest against one of the Indian ministers was involved in planning and organizing the Sikh genocide 1984.
In January 2009 Lakhwinder Singh Gill who currently reside in Canada, was denied entry in India. He was not even allowed to visit his native place in 2011 June to attend his father’s funeral despite being his name was not there in any of the lists disclosed by India.