"Wait for seven years," a lawyer advised me. "Remember the mass cremations in Punjab? Remember J.S. Khalra? More than seven years have passed. Have we got the truth?"
Jaswant Singh Khalra headed the human rights wing of the Akali Dal. In 1995, he issued a press note alleging that thousands of people in police custody were killed and secretly cremated as "unidentified". The media picked up the report. Thereafter, Khalra himself was whisked away by the police. He too disappeared. He was presumably killed.
The Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP), an apex body of several human rights organisations in Punjab funded only by local donors, took Khalra's case to the Supreme Court. Investigations confirmed that Khalra had been killed. Nine police officials were involved. The Supreme Court ordered the cbi to investigate Khalra's allegation of mass cremations by the Punjab police.
The CBI investigation confirmed that 2,097 disappearances were accounted for in the mass cremations organised in Amritsar district alone. The remaining 16 districts of Punjab were not investigated. The CCDP has documented the identities of over 1,700 of the police victims, their families, and the circumstances which led to their arrests, custodial deaths and cremations. There are detailed reports of how innocents with no connection to terrorism were tortured and killed in cold blood by the police, in some cases driving their relatives to suicide or insanity.
Ajit Singh Sandhu, the key accused, came under tremendous pressure. He confided to some people that he would expose his police colleagues who were involved. Shortly thereafter he allegedly committed suicide. Circumstantial evidence suggested the possibility of murder. K.P.S. Gill passionately defended his former colleagues. He instead blamed all the human rights organisations. Prominent media pundits echoed him.
The Supreme Court ordered the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to deal with mass cremations. More than seven years have passed. The nhrc is still dawdling. Pinochet of Chile and Milosevic of Serbia were named international war criminals for crimes no worse.
But our media attention does not rise above the excesses of Salman Khan! India has democracy without accountability, crimes without criminals, and heroes without heroism.
Treat human rights as empty rites,
Keep human wrongs out of sight,
Let tomorrow be dark as night —
Today has sufficient light!
