Human Rights Situation in Punjab is Alarming: IHRO & SAD (A) Presidium

Joint Press Release of IHRO and SAD (A).

Ludhiana
December 19, 2007

The International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO) and the Presidium of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) today highlighted the deteriorating human rights situation in Punjab that had caused resentment and panic among the Sikh community against the state government led by Parkash Singh Badal.
Over the past few months, the police had kept in illegal custody or arrested a number of Sikhs, on fabricated evidence, accusing them of being terrorists or their sympathisers. Their number is increasing alarmingly and many Sikhs are referring the current situation in Punjab to the one that prevailed in 1980’s.
SAD (A) presidium members Harinder Singh Khalsa and Kamikar Singh, and IHRO chairperson D S Gill and its general secretary Mohinder Singh Grewal stated this, while addressing a number of media persons here at a joint press conference.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is doing all this to terrorise the people and silence his political dissidents (activists) in order to cover up his government’s failures to implement the so called 'bold and futuristic' election manifesto for Punjab's development, while the state Opposition party, unfortunately, remains in shambles and directionless, Mr Gill and former MP and human rights leader Mr Khalsa (Norway), told the media.
They asked, “Where is Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act that Amarinder government had incorporated for safeguarding the current usage of river waters by Rajasthan and Haryana, and for the abolition which he (Mr Badal) had promised to scrap it in his first, special Assembly session, after coming into power in the state?”
Capt Amarinder Singh, they said, still proved better than Badal who had terminated all illegal agreements on river waters that had betrayed Punjab and its people, and it was Badal who had been MLA under the leadership of Surjit Singh Barnala, who was instrumental in signing the Rajiv-Longowal Accord, a document of surrender, especially, on Punjab’s riparian rights.
The Badal party promised to tackle farmers' indebtedness and the resultant suicides in the state by offering a one-time debt settlement scheme and a staggered debt-settlement scheme to debt-ridden farmers, but to no avail, said the political and human rights activists, adding that even the subsidies given to them are being withdrawn.
The illegal police custody and arrests of innocent people like Harwinder Singh, Sarbjeet Singh Ghumman, Dr. Bhagwan Singh Sandhu etc.by Badal government are nothing but a ploy to cover-up his government's failures on all fronts.
While cautioning Badal government of its sinister, political designs and trickery, the IHRO and SAD (A) presidium called upon the people of Punjab, especially constituents of the Khalsa Action Committee, to raise their voice tooth and nail against the onslaught let loose on the innocent Sikh activists, scholars and religio-political ideologues.

Source: Email From D. S. Gill (IHRO)