Gurpreet Singh: The Indian government should put an end to fake police shootouts

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      Recent revelations about the Indian police liquidating suspects and political dissidents in fake shootouts should not come as a surprise.

      It's nothing new to those who've been following extra-judicial killings in that country by the police and armed forces.

      India's Central Bureau of Investigation recently charged seven police officers in the Indian state of Gujarat with killing Ishrat Jehan, a Muslim girl, and three others in a fake encounter in 2004. Police had claimed that those killed were Islamist militants who were planning the assassination of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Modi has been linked to an anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002.  

      As this was not enough, a Punjab police sub-inspector, Surjit Singh, came forward with information that he had participated in the murders of over 80 people. These allegedly occurred in the state at the peak of a Sikh militancy, when fundamentalists were seeking a separate independent nation.

      Singh told Straight in a phone interview from India that his life is in danger for telling the truth. Widely known as an "Encounter Specialist", a title often given to cops who are expert in faking shootouts, Singh said that he acted at the behest of senior officers and was given an out-of-turn promotion for carrying out these illegal orders.

      He decided to open his mouth after so many years passed because of an internal dispute with fellow policemen and due to mental pressure. This came after witnessing some colleagues committing suicide for carrying a sense of guilt.    

      It is pertinent to mention that a prominent Sikh militant leader, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was also killed in a fake encounter in 1992. He was the alleged mastermind in the Air India tragedy, the worst terror attack in the history of Canada

      Parmar, who was a Canadian citizen, was widely known as the ringleader of the group involved in two Air India bombings on June 23, 1985 that left 331 people dead. He had sneaked into India, only to be killed by the Punjab police. His killing led to the failure of the Air India investigation that resulted in only one conviction.

      Jaswant Singh Khalra, a prominent human-rights activist from Punjab, was investigating these extra-judicial killings when was himself abducted by the Punjab police in 1995. This came after his return from Canada, and he was never seen after that. Although he is believed to have been murdered, his body was never found.  

      Such atrocities are not confined to just one or two communities or any one particular region of India. One can always debate if there is a pattern behind the killings of suspects belonging to minority groups. However, such practices also continue in central India, where security forces are engaged in an armed battle with ultra-leftist rebels.

      In July 1970, 23 years after India had gained independence after a British occupation, a participant in the freedom movement, Bujha Singh, was also killed in a staged encounter.

      What can be more shameful for the Indian establishment than the police murdering the former organizer of the Argentina branch of the Ghadar Party, a group of armed revolutionaries that sought freedom from foreign rule? A freedom fighter who deserved honour and respect was killed in a cold-blooded murder for joining an ultra-leftist movement at the age of 82. His nephew, Sohan Singh Maan, lives in the Lower Mainland. 

      Today when the Indian government is celebrating the Ghadar Party centenary, its officials should actually take a moment to do some soul searching as to what such celebrations mean when the Indian police have the blood of Bujha Singh on their hands? Notably, Khalra's grandfather was also associated with the Ghadar Party which was established in 1913 by Indian immigrants in North America. The party not only believed in an armed rebellion against the British Empire, but it had resolved to establish a just and fair democratic republican structure in post-independent India. The party later spread its wings across countries where Indian immigrants lived.   

      Like other radical immigrants, Bujha Singh, too, became an active supporter of the party and organized its branch in Argentina.

      Many Ghadar activists returned to India to either face the gallows or life imprisonment. Many continued their struggle for social justice and served jail time as political prisoners even after independence in 1947. Those like Bujha Singh joined the Communist movement.

      The late 1960s saw the emergence of an uprising by the tillers and landless farmers against the ruling elite. Bujha Singh broke ranks with the mainstream Communist parties to join this ultra-leftist movement. Instead of having a dialogue with him, Indian authorities chose to eliminate him—and that attitude against political dissidents continues to prevail.

      If the Indian state really cares about the values of the Ghadar Party, then it must stop repression and official terrorism. To win a war against terror or rebellion, the Indian government should talk to its opponents and take political initiatives, instead of taking their lives through killers in uniforms and honouring these murderers with promotions and bravery awards.

      The Punjab police at present is led by Sumedh Singh Saini, an officer blamed for human-rights violations in the state. This is despite the fact that the Akali Dal, a mainstream Sikh political party that promised to punish the cops responsible for the killings of Sikh militants, is in power. Most of the killings took place either during the Congress party rule or when Punjab was under the president’s rule due to disturbances. Incidentally, Bujha Singh was killed under the Akali Dal regime.

      Likewise, Ankit Garg, a senior police officer from Chhattisgarh, was given a president’s medal for gallantry, despite being instrumental in a brutal torture of Soni Sori, a tribal female teacher.

      Amit Shah, the former home minister of Gujarat under whose command the fake encounters took place, was recently given responsibility for handling social media during the election campaign of the Hindu nationalist BJP.

      Political opportunism apart, the film industry and the media also lack sensitivity and has frequently justified such acts directly or indirectly by glorifying state violence and brutal cops as "Encounter Specialists" or as defenders of the "national interest". What one should always remember is that a nation is not just a piece of land; rather, it’s the composition of people and their culture.

      Any government that worries too much about its national interest should first learn to serve the interests of its citizens rather than the selective interests of the rich and powerful. What terrorists do is certainly not pardonable, but a responsible government cannot be allowed to behave like terrorists.

      Where is a difference between a state and the terrorists when the police act at will and kill people in the name of a war on terror? For a country that is known as world’s largest democracy, such human hunting is completely unacceptable.

      Gurpreet Singh is a Georgia Straight contributor, and the host of a program on Radio India. He's working on a book tentatively titled Canada's 9/11: Lessons from the Air India Bombings.

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      4 Comments

      Anon

      Jul 14, 2013 at 8:49pm

      You failed to mention that most of these terrorists were created by the Indian state repression which India unleashed against peaceful agitations for social and economic reforms after independence from colonial rule(largely as a tool to get votes in other parts of the country especially the middle class Hindu majority votes). The state repression, torture and murder came first and the armed uprisings after, or as a direct result of the former.

      Most of these tactics were a continuation of the British colonial policies. Divide, Isolate and Rule being the most prominent among them used even today, apart from extra judicial arrests and torture. The most brutal methods they learnt from KGB and other eastern bloc secret service agencies that they partnered with(most people forget that India was allied with the soviet bloc during the cold war), including covert actions of Indian diplomats and agents posted abroad in countries with large diaspora communities of affected groups to break their power.

      Anil

      Jul 15, 2013 at 12:54pm

      British did not allow fake encounters during their rule. That is wrong information. Foreign rule is an emotional feeling nothing else, other was British rule is still better than communists and so called self rule of Indians. During so called militancy movements, Punjab police used everything, every method, including capturing people, killing them and blaming on so called militants, torturing and raping ladies. All this was done to get middle class Hindu votes. To be truthful, people of minority need to swallow this bitter pill that they can not claim equal or superior than majority community, they have to live under their pressure[poor sikhs can not even claim that they are a separate religion]. No political party can afford to support tiny minorities. They will be hunted down and killed. Killers were given positions of inspector generals and they are still on that positions. To some extent Sikhs too are emotional fools, they are still voting for man who killed Baba Bujha Singh in fake encounter. Good article Gurprit but be careful walls have ears and Indian govt is watching.

      Kanwal jit Singh Gill

      Jul 15, 2013 at 6:49pm

      Political leaderships just play politics with the justice system but always misuse the justice system for their political benefits. The ruling Congress Govt. has ordered S/C, CBI etc. to act and punish the guilty police officers who killed four innocent persons in fake encounters in Gujrat. Congress Govt. wants Justice system to act soon in Gujrat because it wants disgrace opposition BJP led Modi Govt. in Gujrat and to get Muslim votes in next elections. But in Punjab one of the guilty police officers is admitting to have killed 83 persons in fake encounters following orders of his superiors and rewarded with promotions. But Congress Govt, Justice system, CBI, Media etc. are keeping their eyes, ears closed and completely ignoring such a confession by the guilty police officer. They are not making any effort to punish the guilty police officers who killed thousands of innocent persons in fake encounters and police brutality. Because those innocent killings were approved and ordered by ruling congress Govt. of those times and the Congress leadership is committed to protect those guilty police officers. All this prooves the Double Standards of Indian Justice system and it's misuse by the ruling Govt. in power. Shame on such unfair Justice system of India.

      R.S.Bains

      Jul 17, 2013 at 8:50pm

      Wonderful information put together brilliantly. I had forgotten Bujha Singh, the grand old young man of 82 who dared the state and joined the young idealists.