Bhai Gurmeet Singh's Family Interview

Video Courtesy of Sikh Channel.
9 April 2012


Special Interview with Bhai Gurmeet Singh's family members from Chandigarh. Bhai Gurmeet Singh is in Burail Jail Chandigarh for the last 17 years. 


Bhai Gurmeet Singh is one of several Sikh men who have been convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC in relation to the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant.

London - Peaceful March 12 April 2012

Peaceful march from 10 Downing Street to the Houses of Parliament
12pm to 3pm on Thursday 12 April 2012


Contact Satnam Singh 07401373789 for details of the event.

Documentary - The Untold Story of Punjab.

Professor Bhullar’s death sentence: Hearing to continue.

http://www.sikhsiyasat.net/2012/04/10/professor-bhullars-death-sentence-hearing-to-continue-in-supreme-court-of-india/

Professor Bhullar’s death sentence: Hearing to continue in Supreme court of India

New Delhi, India (April 10, 2012): 

Hearing the plea against execution of death sentence awarded by an Indian court to Sikh activist (Prof.) Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, the Supreme Court of India today asked the Government of India (GOI) to furnish details of the number of constitutional review petitions disposed off by the President in 2011, besides other petitions pending with the government for the past several years. Prof. Bhullar is on death row since 2001 and his constitutional review petition was dismissed by President of India, as per recommendations by GOI, few months back. It is notable that Prof. Bhullar’s death sentence was confirmed by Supreme Court of India in 2002, in a split decision. He was convicted by trial court in the absence of reliable evidence and Presiding Judge of Supreme Court of India acquitted him from the case, but two other judges confirmed his death sentence.

As per information, today, the bench of Justices G. S. Singhvi and S. J. Mukhopadhyaya passed a written order to the effect after perusing minutely certain confidential files relating to the mercy pleas placed before it by Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal. The apex court had on April 3 directed the Centre to furnish details of 18 constitutional review petitions, including that of Parliament attack death convict Afzal Guru pending before the President for 7 years.

These directions were passed by the court while dealing with the appeal filed by Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s wife, challenging the undue delay in disposal of her husband’s constitutional review petition by the President of India. But during today’s hearing, the GOI could place only certain details which were examined by the bench in the court.

Assisting the court as amicus curiae ( -an adviser to the court on some matter of law who is not a party to the case), senior counsel T. R. Andhiarujina said “it is inhuman” to keep the death convicts under prolonged incarceration by delaying a decision on the mercy petition whatever may be the nature of their crime, reports Press Trust of India (PTI).

“There is a need for laying down a certain time frame for deciding on such mercy petitions,” T. R. Andhiarujina is said to have added.

The court agreed with the view of the amicus that many death row convicts apparently do not want to risk their case by coming to the court lest their mercy applications are decided immediately by the government. The bench cited the instance of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar. Prof. Bhullar’s constitutional review petition was rejected by President of India within days of his family filing a petition in the Supreme Court, to take the notice of undue delay in deciding the review petition moved on Professor Bhullar’s behalf.

Bhai Mandhir Singh, a youth leader of Akali Dal Panch Pardhani, informed Sikh Siyasat on phone, from Delhi, that the arguments would continue tomorrow.

As per information the court had earlier asked eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani to file written submissions on “whether the President should objectively apply mind while deciding constitutional review petitions”. The apex court had felt the role of the state was perhaps advisory and the final verdict is that of the President.

Appearing for Prof. Bhullar, senior counsel K. T. S. Tulsi had earlier told the court that between 1997 and 2011, the President has disposed off 32 review petitions, 13 of which were done after a 10-year wait. He submitted 14 other cases were disposed off after a delay ranging between four and 10 years while the remaining cases were disposed off between one-four years.

Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, a victim of state repression, was deported from Germany in 1995, after his application for political asylum was rejected there. Later a Frankfurt court observed that German authorities were not aware of full facts at the time of his deportation, otherwise Professor DPS Bhullar was eligible to seek asylum in Germany on the ground that he was facing life threats in India.

The Supreme Court of India had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal, in a split decision, against the death sentence awarded by a designated TADA court.

A review petition was filed with Supreme Court of India, which was dismissed on December 17, 2002 in a split decision, with Presiding judge of three judges bench acquitting Prof. Bhullar while two other judges confirming his death sentence.

Then a curative petition was moved in Supreme Court of India, that was rejected on March 12, 2003.

Meanwhile, various Sikh organizations formed Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar Defence Committee and decided to file a constitutional review petition before the President of India under Article 72, on January 14, 2003.

The President of India, after a lapse of over eight years, dismissed the petition on May 25, 2011.

Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar is currently undergoing treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences at Shahdara in Delhi for hypertension, psychiatric illness and suicidal tendencies.

Earlier, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Centre had justified the delay of over eight years in deciding Bhullar’s mercy plea and said “processing such petition is purely a Constitutional process which takes time”.

The Centre had told the court that no time limit can be fixed for disposal of these pleas of convicts on death row and the court cannot prescribe a time limit for it. It had submitted powers conferred on the President to decide a such plea are special powers which cannot be interfered with.

The GOI today contended that the legal process ends up with the final disposal of a case in Supreme court of India and the court can not review the decision formed by the President of India on clemency/review pleas of death row convict

Death Penalty - India's Myopia

http://www.opendemocracy.net/n-jayaram/death-penalty-indian-authorities%E2%80%99-incredible-myopia
Death penalty: the Indian authorities’ incredible myopia
N. Jayaram, 10 April 2012


How much longer will the Indian state cling to the machinery of death, both of the judicial and extra-judicial variety?

A country that has had several experiences with stoked fires that see it engulfed in conflagrations might be expected to have learned to forestall, or at the very least to rouse itself at the first spark of trouble. Not India.


The case of a Sikh militant sentenced to hang for the 1995 assassination of Punjab state chief minister Beant Singh shows the country’s leaders have failed to learn from history.


A judge in the city of Chandigarh confirmed in mid-March the death sentence on Balwant Singh Rajoana, setting March 31 as the date for his hanging. Immediately and predictably, almost the whole of Punjab state and the Sikh diaspora in far corners of the globe got mobilized to oppose the sentence. Internet-based networks have proliferated, with myriad pages each drawing tens of thousands of adherents.


Few among those posting on these pages oppose the death penalty in principle. Most have been using the occasion to harp on about long-held and serious grievances against the Indian state. They recall Operation Blue Star, the Indian army assault to flush out Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 that left hundreds dead. Later that year, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, members of her Congress party carried out a pogrom against Sikhs, killing at least 3,000 men, women and children. Not only the Sikhs, who make up just two per cent of India’s population, but much of the rest of the country was appalled by the events.  These memories are being stirred up by militants exhorting Sikhs in Punjab and worldwide to mobilise against the Indian state.


The Punjab government of the main Sikh political Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, has fallen in line with popular sentiment against the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made a special statement in the state’s legislative assembly. “The jail superintendent is duty-bound to satisfy himself that no appeal for relief by any co-accused in such [a] case was under consideration of any court… The Superintendent of the Central Jail, Patiala, is of the view that … this case had many legal and constitutional shortcomings, loopholes and flaws, which made the execution of the court orders impossible within the ambit of law,” Badal is quoted as having said↑ .  It has taken a jail official to hold forth on the constitutionality of a death penalty case in the world’s largest democracy teeming with politicians and judges!


Rajoana has refused to appeal against his death sentence and India’s Supreme Court has rejected petitions filed by a lawyer and a human rights organisation seeking its intervention. Two Supreme Court judges said that only the convict can file an appeal. A strange stand for a court to take in a death penalty case! Even in China, which regularly gets the stick for being the world’s champion executioner, all death penalty cases have to be heard by the Supreme People’s Court↑ since 2007 and recent amendments seek to ensure that when a defendant does not appoint a lawyer, the courts or the prosecutors do so.


India had 110 reported death sentences↑ in 2011 and up to 500 people are believed to be on death row in the country.  Death sentences are mandatory for many crimes in India even though jurists worldwide acknowledge that such mandatory penalty is plainly unjust. Coincidentally, even as the Rajoana’s life hung in the balance, South African jurist Christof Heyns↑ , the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions was in India on a mission and pointed out that whereas the Indian Supreme Court had advised in 1980 that the death penalty should be used in the “rarest of rare” instances, “the list of crimes for which this sentence may be imposed is still much wider than the one provided for under international law.” ().


Moreover, as Amnesty International has pointed out↑ , India is among a few countries where the scope of the death penalty has actually been expanded. This makes a mockery of the “rarest of rare” precept set out in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab.  Instead of defining and restricting – if not actually codifying or quantifying – the use of the death penalty, the Indian Supreme Court has left a gaping hole through which lower court judges seeking cheap publicity can swing their cynical gavels and claim that the case they are handling is one of the ‘rarest of rare’ variety.


Keeping people for long periods on death row amounts to psychological torture but India blithely holds hundreds, to whose ranks Rajoana returns, now that India’s Home (Interior) Ministry has decided to consider the petitions filed by a Sikh religious organisation to spare his life. It remains to be seen whether the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh makes up its mind or passes on the case to a successor government.


The Akali Dal’s electoral ally, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has failed to commit itself openly in the Rajoana case. The BJP, the leading opposition party in the national parliament, tends to be virulently pro-death penalty when it comes to some Muslim convicts it deems ‘terrorists’. But this time, it has preferred pussyfooting round the issue, one or two of its leaders going so far as to vaguely suggest that clemency appeals were part of the process of law taking its course.


Clearly the Hindu nationalist understanding of how the law has to operate varies according to the religion of the person accused. It defends to the hilt Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat state who is widely blamed for the deaths of at least 2,000 Muslims in a pogrom in 2002 but opportunistically joins in the chorus for bringing to book Congress party leaders implicated in the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984.


Such parochial approaches are to be seen among other groups too. In August 2011, after three Tamil men convicted for the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi won a stay of execution from the Madras High Court, the legislature in Tamil Nadu state, of which Madras (renamed Chennai) is the capital, passed a unanimous resolution calling for the commutation of the death sentences on the three men. But Tamil politicians stay silent in the case of death penalties pronounced on people elsewhere in India. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of Jammu and Kashmir state wondered aloud what the reaction would be should the legislature in his state pass a resolution similar to the one in Tamil Nadu, demanding commutation of the death penalty imposed on Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the parliament in New Delhi.


The Sikh leaders calling for Rajoana’s life to be spared will likewise keep their counsels to themselves when someone elsewhere in India is condemned to death. Meanwhile, the Indian state keeps drifting, without making up its mind on the nearly 500 people on death row. The last time anyone was hanged was in 2004 in West Bengal state after a hysterical campaign partly led by the wife of the state’s Marxist chief minister against a man convicted of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old.


All the while, of course, democratic India continues to get rid of a lot of insurgent groups using a method popular with security forces in totalitarian regimes – extrajudicial killings, euphemistically referred to by Indian officials and the media as “encounters”.


In fact, chief minister Beant Singh, whose killing led to the death penalty being imposed on Rajoana, was accused of having unleashed state terror during his term of office in Punjab (1992-1995), giving the police a green light to carry out extra-judicial killings against Sikh militants. A number of fake “encounters” were later reported to have resulted in the deaths of innocent people labelled “separatists”.


The dithering over Rajoana’s case is once again stoking the separatist fire. How much longer will the Indian state cling to the machinery of death, both of the judicial and extra-judicial variety?

Bhai Rajoana's Letter dated 7 Apr 2012

http://www.sikhsangat.com/Index.php?/topic/66286-bhai-rajoanas-vasakhi-letter/

Ik Oangkaar

Respectable Khalsa Jio,

Waheguruji ka Khalsa

Waheguruji ki Fateh.

First of all, I pray to Lord Almighty, to bless the Panth with 'Chardi-Kalaa' (High spirits).

All the young heirs to my 'Kaum' residing nationally or internationally! The 'sangharsh' (peace protests) done by you all, holding the 'Kesri nishaan' (saffron flag) in your hands, has brought worldwide attention towards the Khalsa Panth. The Kesri Nishaan everywhere brought a new passion into the sad atmosphere in the Khalsa Panth.

Dear children, today I would like to request you all to return home (Sikhi Saroop). I know that you haven't gone far. You were let down by your leaders but were guarding your home from outside. Recently, you have proved that, by tying 'Kesri' turbans and holdng Kesri Nishaan during the protests.

Dear children, our home is the most wonderful and unique of all.

The foundation stone of our home was laid by Guru Naanak Dev Ji themselves; then Guru Angad Dev Ji, Guru Amar Daas Ji and Guru Raam Daas Ji had built the foundation and the walls with their own hands.

Guru Arjan Dev ji had built the roof over our home by sitting on the 'Tatti Tavi' (hot iron plate).

Guru Tegh Bahadur ji had then plastered the walls of our home by being beheaded at the Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Then Guru Gobind Singh Ji installed the Kesri Nishaan over our unprecedented and unique home by sacrificing his four Sahebzaadey.

And then, Baba Deep Singh ji, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, Mai Bhago and millions of other Sikhs sacrificed themselves in the battlefield to build a fence around our home.

The proud-to-be-a-sikh Sikhs, then made the garden of our home by being cut bone-by-bone, sown into halves, and by mothers who were made to wear a garland of body pieces of their own babies.

The lovely scent of this garden has acquianted the world of its being.

You tell me, my children! Will anyone want to leave this wonderful and unique home? Do accept my request and come home. While coming home, remember to bow your head only before the One Akaal Purakh, the One Sri Guru Granth Saheb ji and the Akaal Takhat Saheb; none else.

Beware of the Saadhs, who are stuck in the 'daldal' (quicksand) of money and conspiracies, and only focus your life on Naam Japna (recite Lord's name), Kirt Karni (honest and truthful labour) and Wand Chhakna (sharing).

Dear children! By wearing the Sikhi attire, live every aspect of your life in such a way, that the world bows before you and salutes you. Wake up at amritvela, recite the Guru's Name, create play-grounds in every village, do some exercise, eat healthily, consider the drugs as your enemies and chuck them away. Create such an atmosphere around you that the entire world becomes astounded.

Our Makki di roti, Saron da saag and chaati di lassi are much tastier and healthier than the pizzas and burgers of the West.

We will have to take pride in us being Sikhs at first; only then will the world be proud of us.

Dear children! I pray to the Supreme Being that may you be the pride of this proud and unique home.

Dear children! When I ask you to come home (sikhi saroop), I also have in mind, the ones who are already home. My only request to the family members who're at home is, that they should not treat this wonderful and unique home as a means of money-making, and rather leave it as the symbol of pride, honour and self-respect!

Come on everyone! Let's all decide to come home on this auspicious occasion of Vaisakhi and follow the Guru. I congratulate the entire Khalsa panth on the occasion Vaisakhi.

I will always be indebted to the love, that the youth residing nationally or overseas have given me.

God bless.

From:

Balwant Singh Rajoana

Cell no. 16,

Central Jail, Patiala.

Dated: 07/04/2012.

Paramilitary forces deputed during Rajoana episode to be sent back

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/paramilitary-forces-deputed-during-rajoana-episode-be-sent-back/41443

Paramilitary forces deputed during Rajoana episode to be sent back

    

April 9, 2012

PHILLAUR: All 15 companies of para-military forces including CRPF and Border Security Force deputed during “Rajoana-episode” to maintain peace and normal law and order would now be sent back by April 20.This was stated by Addl ADGP (HR)and Law and Order Punjab S.K.Sharma while talking this correspondent at Punjab Police Academy Phillaur on Monday.

Replying a question about Gurdaspur unfortunate incident in which one Jaspal Singh was killed in the police firing, he said that three members Special Investigating Team headed by DIG Border Range Ram Singh along with two members SSP Taran taran and SP Majitha is investigating the episode to bring the truth to light.

When asked about the reports of increasing crime in the state, Sharma said though crime prevailed in every society but organized crime could not be tolerated and accused are being dealt with firm hands according to law. When his attention was drawn towards increasing trends of road and rail blockades by different types of agitators who are being booked, but nothing could be initiated after the registration of cases against the violators of the rules, ADGP said that police will definitely work against the violators.

Sharma said that the work on “Community Policing” which was stopped due to the election mode in the state would now again be accelerated in second phase to make ensure the involvement of the public in solving several complicated issues. ADGP however admitted that traffic rules are being openly violated by several vehicle drivers, but now Punjab Police headed by new DGP is keen to implement traffic rules strictly for the safety of the people. 

He said a state wide campaign would soon be started to educate the people from driving sense and Road Safety measures. ADGP however ruled out any possibility of the revival of terrorism in the state and said that police is vigilantly monitoring the situation and no such elements would be allowed to act.

ADGP expressed his satisfaction on “Police Nafri” in the state saying more than 70,000 cops are sufficient to maintain normal law and order. When asked Railway Protection Force wanted executive powers from GRP,ADGP Sharma said it could only be decided by Union Government with the consent of state government. 

Sharma said that Punjab Police has good co-ordination with its neighboring states. Chief Director Vigilance Punjab Suresh Arora, Punjab Police Academy Phillaur Working Director Ishwar Chander Sharma and Police Commissioner Ludhiana Ishwar Singh were also present on the occasion. Earlier he took salute from 431 trainees passed out from various training course.

India should Hang the Death Penalty not Humans.

http://postnoon.com/2012/04/09/hang-death-penalty/42435

Hang Death Penalty - The Human Angle

Babu Gogineni

Postnoon News | April 9, 2012

Chandigarh Sessions Court’s instruction to the SP of Patiala Central Jail to implement the scheduled execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana on 31 March has revived the debate on the death penalty in India. Rajoana was the back-up human bomb when Punjab CM Beant Singh was assassinated in 1995. Rajoana never appealed for mercy, but clemency petitions filed by the Punjab government and by Sikh groups who consider the unrepentant Rajoana a living martyr to the cause of the Sikh nation have led to a further postponement of the execution.

While some political groups bay for the blood of convicts they dislike (Afzal Guru and Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab), and others ask for clemency for those they support (Sri Lankan assassins of Rajiv Gandhi — Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan), on 29 March the Supreme Court of India took notice of death row politics in the country and asked some uncomfortable questions as regards clemency petitions and procedures. This is of great significance as there are currently 18 clemency petitions with the President’s office and over 300 people are on death row in the country.

In India, the crimes of murder, gang robbery with murder, abetting the suicide of a child or insane person, waging war against the nation, abetting mutiny by a member of the armed forces and large scale narcotics trafficking are eligible for the death penalty. The SC which in 1983 instructed that the death penalty should be imposed only in the ‘rarest of rare’ cases has recently recommended the death penalty for police officials who stage false encounter killings and for those who commit honor killings.

Is the death penalty a moral abomination or an effective deterrent of violent crime? Is it better for society to incarcerate a dangerous criminal forever, or is the ultimate punishment more justified for heinous crimes? How safe are death penalty convictions?

Providing a backdrop to the death penalty debate in India was Amnesty International’s latest report on the global use of the death penalty in 2011. The report recorded the positive trend that only 20 of the world’s 198 countries carried out an execution in 2011; 96 countries did away with it while 34 countries have been abolitionist in practice by observing official or unofficial moratoria. India has been abolitionist — the last execution took place in 2004.

From a distance, it appears that the world is slowly moving towards a more civilised system of criminal justice. In 1971 the UN General Assembly called for a restriction on the number of offences for which the death penalty could be imposed, with a view to abolishing it altogether. This will of the global community was reiterated in 1977 and again in 2010 in UN Resolutions with ever growing support from member nations. Today, no country can become a member of the Council of Europe or of the European Union unless they abandon the death penalty. Some African countries like Angola, Djibouti, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa have abolished capital punishment. Gabon is the latest to join their ranks.

From close, the picture is less attractive. India, along with the US, Saudi Arabia and China, did not support the UN resolutions and more than 60 per cent of the world’s population today lives in regimes where the death penalty is still legal — 18,750 people remain under sentence of death worldwide, and at least 676 people were executed in the year. These figures exclude the statistics for China which keeps executions secret, but is believed to execute thousands of people every year. A sharp rise in the use of the death penalty was noted specially in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, who along with the US and China are the world’s top executioners.

Despite its wide spread use, can the death penalty ever be justified?

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that moral Magna Carta which sets universal standards for the global civilisation and in whose formulation India played an important role, affirms: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The infliction of death as punishment is indeed a cruel and unusual form of punishment. It is in the spirit of retribution, not rehabilitation and militates against modern standards of justice.

From flaying alive to boiling in oil to the executioner’s axe, from the hangman’s noose to the lethal injection, the death penalty has seen many barbarous refinements, but has only inflicted pointless pain where a less severe punishment could have achieved the same purpose. As Victor Hugo pointed out, it is irrevocable, irreparable and indissoluble and hence has no place in human law. In Franz Kafka’s nameless Penal Colony the death machine kills the guard himself in the name of justice, in the same way that every death penalty kills our humanity and brutalises our society.

The time has come to hang the death penalty, not humans.

Antim Ardas of Bhai Jaspal Singh Shaheed (7th April 2012)

Delegation from Delhi meets with Akal Takht Jathedar

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/sad-delhi-delegation-meets-akal-takht-jathedar/983638.html

Amritsar, Apr 6 (PTI) A delegation of SAD (Delhi) today met Akal Takht 'Jathedar' Gurbachan Singh and sought his intervention in release of Sikh leaders arrested during the Punjab bandh called on March 28 by Akal Takhat Sahib. The delegation, led by general secretaries Hardial Singh Aman and Balwinder Singh Bhullar met Jathedar and asked him to "issue directions to Punjab government to release the Sikh leaders." Jaswinder Singh Baliyewal, youth leader SAD Delhi Gurdip Singh Gosha, Baba Baljeet Singh Daduwal and Daljit Singh Bittu were arrested by Punjab police on "flimsy" ground, they alleged. "To save Balwant Singh Rajoana from gallows was these foremost duty of five Sikh leaders who made the Punjab bandh call successful," Bhullar said. A day-long bandh was called on March 28 by radical Sikh outfits to protest the proposed execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the Beant Singh killing case.

 

Security Beefed Up in Gurdaspur

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Amritsar/Security-beefed-up-in-Gurdaspur-ahead-of-youth-s-bhog/SP-Article1-836554.aspx

Gurdaspur , April 06, 2012

Over 2,000 personnel of Punjab Police and para-military BSF and CRPF have been deployed in Gurdaspur to prevent any untoward incident during the 'bhog' ceremony of Jaspal Singh (18), who was killed in police firing during a bandh in the town on March 29, at Chor Sidhwan village, 7km from here on Saturday.

Gurdaspur SSP Surinder Kumar Kalia maintained on Friday that police would not prevent the people from attending the religious ceremony but would not allow anyone to disturb peace.

Security had been beefed up at all chowks and entry points in Gurdaspur town and police would do its best to instill a sense of security among the locals, the SSP said and claimed that there was no call from any organisation to observe a 'bandh' in Gurdaspur on April 7.

Meanwhile, most private schools of Gurdaspur have already announced a holiday for students and staff on Saturday as a precautionary measure. Many local shopkeepers too would prefer to keep shops shut to avoid any unsavoury incident.

Meanwhile, a large number of people from the district and other parts of the state are expected to attend the 'bhog' ceremony. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, Damdami Taksal chief Bhai Harnam Singh Dhumma, leaders of various factions of All India Sikh Students Federation, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann and representatives of several Sikh organisations are likely to attend the religious function.

Family sources asserted that they would keep the function a simple affair and that no political leaders would be allowed to make speeches during the function. Only Giani Gurbachan Singh will deliver a speech to pay homage to the deceased who has been declared a 'Sikh martyr' by the Akal Takht.

Prisoner Dead, Inmates on Hunger Strike

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Bathinda/Prisoner-dead-inmates-on-hunger-strike/SP-Article1-836262.aspx

Prisoners die in jails often and allegations of torture also emerge, but the Bathinda Central Jail official will regret it happened in the presence of Simranjit Singh Mann, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). At 7pm on Wednesday, inmate Jogpreet Singh of Soondh village in

Nawanshahar was found hanged in a bathroom, and the other prisoners went on hunger strike over his alleged torture by the jail authorities.

Jogpreet had been charged under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (abduction), and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code at women's police station in Nawanshahar and a court had sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment.

On January 1, 2011, Jogpreet had been transferred to Bathinda from the Hoshiarpur jail. The man hanged himself, say prison officials, but he was more than 6 feet and the bathroom less than 6.5-foot tall.

The prisoners on hunger strike charged the jail authorities with regular physical and mental torture of inmates. "On Wednesday, before the death of Jogpreet, the jail authorities, including a doctor and some policemen, had beaten him up," said prisoner Amarjit Sharma.

"They tortured him and other prisoners regularly." Jogpreet's death is fourth inside this prison in two months. Three deaths came in February. The condition of the inmates and treatment given to them had all come into question. Prisoners Ashwini (23), Preetam (85), and Balwant Singh (75) died within a week.

Bathroom's height in doubtThe height of bathroom where Jogpreet hanged himself is between 6.5 feet and 7 feet, jail superintendent Prem Kumar Garg has claimed. "The inquiry is in the hands of the deputy commissioner," he said. "The prisoner hanged himself with a rope. The reports of torture and strike are false."

Mann unconvincedSimranjit Singh Mann, president of the SAD (A), who was about to be released from the jail on the high court order, added fuel to doubt. "It's shameful that no jail official looked into the suspicious circumstances of death," he said. "The prisoners were on hunger strike until I convinced them to end it."

SAD (A) chief freeAfter he secured bail from the Punjab and Haryana high court, Mann was released on Thursday evening from the Bathinda central jail.

Free Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana - We Pledge Orange

Kesri Nishan Car Rally, Canada - In Support of Bhai Balwant Singh

Dal Khalsa seek UN help to abolish death penalty.

Dal Khalsa seeks UN help to abolish death penalty
http://m.financialexpress.com/news/dal-khalsa-seeks-un-help-to-abolish-death-penalty/933202/

Express news service

Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa on Thursday said it has sought intervention of United Nations in persuading India to join the ranks of countries which have abolished the death penalty.

The European chapter of the radical Sikh organisation knocked at the doors of the UN and submitted a memorandum urging the world body to influence India to continue its undeclared moratorium and work toward abolishing death penalty, said Kanwar Pal Singh spokesperson of the group.

The group’s disclosure comes close on the heels of a stay on hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is on death row for killing of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
On March 28, the Centre stayed hanging of Rajoana following a mercy plea.

“We have taken a cue from UN resolution passed on September 20, 2010 appealing all nations to observe a moratorium on the death penalty if they are not agreeable to passing a legislation abolishing it, he said.

“Our representatives have urged UN to influence the world’s largest democracy to dismantle the gallows forever,” Singh told media here.

Recently a three-member delegation, led by party’s secretary for human rights Prithpal Singh Khalsa met Safir Syed, officer in the Civil Society Section of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and submitted a memorandum expressing their opposition to capital punishment in principle.
The memorandum states that petitions of more than 33 persons on the death row are pending for review with the President of India. It further states that, India has not sentenced to death anyone since 2004, though the courts have been giving out death penalty punishments in supposedly “rarest of the rare cases.”

To hammer home its point, the Dal Khalsa has given an example of reign of Maharaj Ranjit Singh. “The Sikh ruler during his 40 year rule of the Sarkar-e-Khalsa (1799-1839), did not execute any one, including the person who attempted to murder the Maharaja. The Sikh ethical approach of compassion, forgiveness and scope for reformation of one’s life is a prerequisite for progressive modern civil society.”

Stating that the Indian government has stayed the hanging of Babbar Khalsa militant Balwant Singh Rajoana, an accused in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, for the time being, the letter “asked the UN officials to act fast as life hangs by the cliff for many, including Rajoana, on the death row in Indian prisons.”