On September 6, 1995, Khalra "disappeared." The Punjab police took him into custody at his home. Although he was seen in police custody, badly tortured and beaten, the police deny knowledge of his whereabouts. Mr. Khalra is just one of many human rights activists targeted for neutralization by the Indian State, for bringing to light the atrocities against the citizens it is supposed to serve and protect. Among the most disturbing of these cases occurred last March 27, when the body of Kashmiri Muslim lawyer and prominent human rights activist Jalil Andrabi was dragged out of the Jhelum River with his eyes gouged out and a single bullet wound to his head.

The continuous, irrefutable evidence of state-sponsored attacks on human rights workers and innocent citizens, emphatically exposes the true nature of India's profound anti-democratic government willing to resort to any means--torture, rape, deaths in custody, the formation of death squads--to suppress its citizen's exercise of their constitutional and human rights! India has tried desperately to hide its actions by barring international human rights organizations from entering the country. Amnesty International has been prevented from conducting an independent investigation in India since 1978. Nonetheless, numerous reports and photographs of police and army barbarism have streamed out of the country and documented by human rights workers who have covertly entered India.

What kind of democracy tortures, murders, and then secretly disposes of over 25,000 of its citizens? What kind of country is it that covers up its misdeeds by seizing and torturing anyone who dares to expose the atrocities India commits against its citizens?

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Located in the north of India, the Sikh Kingdom was the last to submit to the British conquest of India. They began non-violent resistance against British colonialism long before M.K.Gandhi and constituted 75% of those who died in the struggle for independence, despite constituting less than 2% of the population. During independence, the Sikhs cast their lot with the newly-emerging nation of India as a result of the assurance given by the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, that no constitution would be adopted without the approval of the Sikhs. Nehru and his political allies revoked their word despite the refusal of the Sikh delegation to sign the constitution in protest of the outrageously offensive content of the document. To this day, no representative of the Sikhs has signed the Indian constitution. This was the first act in a long and sad tale of repeated betrayal.

For over thirty years the Sikhs employed parliamentary means to voice their opposition to the prevalent direction of national policy. The salient points of dispute included the Constitutional status of the Sikh religion, the formation of a Sikh majority state in Punjab, recognition of their mother tongue (Punjabi), and numerous other political, economic and social grievances. In the early 1980's, out of frustration from the insincere posture and outright hostility of the Government during negotiations, the Sikhs launched a massive non-violent protest campaign to gain the government's attention and force it to the bargaining table in good faith. The government responded by arresting and torturing the peaceful protesters who exercised their democratic rights.

The situation escalated in tension and violence until June of 1984, when the Indian government sent the Army to occupy the state of Punjab. In the ultimate expression of state terrorism, Indian Forces simultaneously attacked 39 Sikh gurdwaras (Sikh sites of worship) on June 4, including the Sikh's most sacred gurduara the Harmandir Sahib (also known as The Golden Temple) in Amritsar. The government troops massacred several thousand men, women, and children in the Golden Temple alone--innocently trapped pilgrims who had come for a religious festival. Many Sikh men were shot in the back of the head at close range after having their hands tied behind their backs with their own turbans. This invasion of sacred space was perceived by Sikhs around the world as an assault on the Sikh faith itself.

What followed was even worse: a genocidal campaign against the Sikhs by the agents of the Indian State. The Army was given a high-level directive to instill fear in the hearts of the Sikh people. They raped women and arrested and tortured innocent Sikh youth throughout the rural countryside of the state. With a total news blackout in effect, the rest of the world remained unaware of the chilling tragedy transpiring in Punjab.

On October 31, 1984, following the assassination of the Prime Minister by her Sikh bodyguards, the Government launched another wave of terror against Sikh residents of the nation's capital, New Dehli. Using voter registration lists and other official forms to find Sikh houses, high-ranking politicians of the ruling Congress Party led gangs of armed thugs to loot, burn, rape, and kill. The Sikh members of the police (forming 20% of their number) and the army had been disarmed and sent away prior to the massacre, while the rest of the army and police stood by as silent spectators and in several instances either encouraged the crowd or themselves participated in the massacres. Reliable estimates place the toll in excess of 10,000 Sikhs killed. Some of the individuals responsible for orchestrating this slaughter went on to hold high positions in the Indian government, including at the cabinet level.

Since the mid-1980's, the government has continued to act in disregard of the life, liberty and property of the Sikh population. The nation's Parliment passed draconian laws like TADA (Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Act) which assumed an accussed was guilty until proven innocent and placed the burden of proof on the accussed; witnesses could accuse people and have their identities kept secret; hearings were held in jail instead of a legal court; families were not informed where their relatives were being held. Moreover, anyone could be detained for a year without bringing charges and without bringing the accused before a judge. According to Amnesty International, thousands of Sikhs remain in detention under TADA, even though it expired in March, 1995. This has been confirmed in an article by Kuldip Nayar, a prominent Indian journalist and ex-diplomat, in the August 22 issue of The Hindu: "Logically, all TADA detainees should have been released when the Act ended. But strange are the ends of justice. The Government lost the power to detain but not the authority to keep the detainees in jail. The courts also have gone along with the dichotomy, adding to the sufferings of detainees and their relatives and friends."

A grass roots movement for Sikh self-determination (as guaranteed in the International Declaration of Human Rights) was desecrated, along with the torture and murder of family members, friends, and associates of those involved. Well over 150,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian Government's reign of terror against the members of this minority religion and the death toll mounts daily.

The U.S. State Department reported in its 1994 country report on India that between 1991 and 1993 the Indian government paid over 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing Sikhs. The Indian state has also killed over 200,000 Christians in Nagaland, more than 43,000 Muslims in Kashmir, and tens of thousands of Manipuris, Assamese, and others. Furthermore, Dalits ("untouchables" - lowest Hindu caste) have been killed by the thousands. According to Physicians For Human Rights in their report on Kashmir, "Indian troops have embarked on a 'catch and kill' campaign against Muslim militants...including summary executions of hundreds of detainees in the custody of security forces...assaults of medical workers, rape, torture, and arson... a testament to the failure of the Indian government's attempt to resolve crisis through force."

According to Amnesty International's 1997 Report On India, "Thousands of political prisoners were held without charge or trial. Torture, including rape, and ill-treatment were endemic throughout the country, leading or contributing to at least 200 deaths in custody. Prison conditions amounting to ill-treatment were common. "Disappearances" continued. Hundreds of people were reportedly extrajudicially executed by the security forces; human rights defenders continued to be targeted."

As recently as July 30, 1997 the UN Human Rights Committee released their report on India. The Human Rights Committee expressed their concern about "the incidence of custodial deaths, rape and torture" and called for "the early enactment of legislation for a mandatory judicial inquiry into cases of disappearance and death, ill-treatment or rape in police custody."

All this time, India has successfully resisted international human rights pressure for an outside investigation. The above mentioned organizations have conducted investigations covertly and through secret entry. India has failed to hold itself and those who have committed these acts of abuse accountable for their actions. What does India have to hide?

We demand an end to the brutal repression of Sikhs and other religious minorities in India! India must allow international human rights organizations to conduct independent investigations and punish those responsible for these continuing atrocities.

It is time for India to implement "true" democratic rule by abiding to Article 5 of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights:

"NO ONE SHALL BE SUBJECTED TO TORTURE OR TO CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT."