How Jaswant Singh Khalra uncovered police brutality in Punjab, and what price he paid for it
The sudden removal of the Punjabi film Satluj from an OTT platform, within 48 hours of its release, has sparked a renewed interest on the
The sudden removal of the Punjabi film Satluj from an OTT platform, within 48 hours of its release, has sparked a renewed interest on the life of the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and his fight for justice against extrajudicial cremations in the 1990s in Punjab. Even as Zee5 warned against piracy, singer Diljit Dosanjh, who portrays Khalra in the movie, encouraged people to watch Satluj wherever and however they can. “One day truth always comes out, “ Dosanjh stated. The film, which has been referred by the government to an Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) constituted under the IT Rules 2021 for a detailed examination, unnerves viewers with its depiction of state violence on youth of Punjab during 1990s. History reminds us why Jaswant Singh Khalra, who fought for a generation scarred by police brutality, remains a revered figure in Punjab even today. When firewood purchase exposed extrajudicial killings The Committee for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP) was formed in 1997 to look into the human right violations committed in Punjab during the police operations against Khalistani separatist elements. Their report, Reduced To Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab, explains how Jaswant Singh Khalra, the general secretary of the Akali Dal’s human rights wing, unearthed the alleged cases of “secret” cremations of unidentified bodies and extrajudicial killings in Punjab. Khalra, a law graduate, was working in a bank when he began investigating the disappearances of his colleagues. He then discovered a note from the Amritsar municipal corporation with names of people cremated by the police. He released the findings as a press note and supported the claims with proofs of firewood purchase registers from a crematorium in Amritsar district. He also furnished these records in the writ petition while approaching the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding an investigation but the court dismissed his petition, saying that the petitioner had no locus standi in the matter. Undeterred by constant threats and obstruction, Khalra continued his quest for justice for the grieving families. In June 1995, he gave a speech in front of Canadian lawmakers on police excess. Three months later, on September 6, 1995, he was abducted from his Amritsar residence.
Khalra’s family moved the Supreme Court, which directed the CBI to probe his abduction and also to take into account the evidence gathered by Khalra on the allegations of cremation of unidentified bodies and extrajudicial killings. The CBI concluded that Punjab police officers had taken Khalra to a police station in Tarn Taran and was subsequently killed in custody. In its report, apart from identifying nine police officers involved in the abduction and murder of Khalra, it disclosed details on 2,097 illegal cremations in Amritsar district. The Supreme Court directed the Human Rights Commission (NHRC) “to have the matter examined in accordance with the law and determine all the issue which are raised before the commission”. The Supreme Court remarked in its order, “in case it is found that the facts stated in the Press Note [released by Jaswant Singh Khalra] are correct - even partially - it would be a gory-tale of Human rights violations. It is horrifying to visualise that dead bodies of large number of persons, allegedly thousands, could be cremated by the police unceremoniously with a label “unidentified”. NHRC reports on human rights violation in Punjab In its annual reports spanning 1995 to 2000, the Human Rights Commission published detailed findings from its investigation into extrajudicial killings and disappearances.” The NHRC formally recorded the abduction in its annual report of the year 1995-96, under the chapter “Human rights in the areas of terrorism and insurgency”. The Commission noted its deep concern over both insurgent violence and state excesses, stating, “the Commission is profoundly grieved when reports are received both of terrorist excesses, and of the excessive use of force by the instrumentalities of State, of unaccounted disappearances or of deaths in circumstances that are suspicious, such as those where allegations are made of “false encounters” The NHRC’s annual report for the year 1998-99, stated that though the petitioners have asked all cases of “extra-judicial eliminations, or involuntary disappearances, fake encounters, abductions and killings etc.” across Punjab to be investigated, the Central and Punjab governments argued that the inquiry should be restricted to 2,097 cremations in the districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, and Majitha. For the first time in 1999, the Punjab government published list of all the cremations done by the police of “un-claimed/ un-identified bodies” in the three districts between June and December in 1994.
The BriefWire