Nov
15
Police claim assassination attempt
November 15, 2005 | Comments Off on Police claim assassination attempt
In another police claim of increased militancy, Punjab police say that they have prevented an assassination attempt on former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal by arresting Amarjit Singh. Police arrested Amarjit Singh, lodged an FIR against him for conspiracy to assassinate Bhajan Lal, and claim to have recovered arms and ammunition from him.
Based on the research and findings published in the ENSAAF report Fabricating Terrorism, these police accounts of militancy and arms possession are often false; detainees are held in illegal detention and the majority of them are tortured.
The report by ENSAAF chronicles the several dozen arrests by Indian police from June to August 2005 under claims that the arrested individuals supported militancy in Punjab. The ENSAAF study reveals that Indian security forces routinely use illegal detention, torture, and threats against family members to target the accused. Further, the Indian police have fabricated stories of attempted militant crimes and recovered weapons, concealing their escalation in human rights violations.
The arrests by police reported in the ENSAAF report center on the capture of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s chief minister.
On November 5, the Patiala police claimed that they recovered a huge store of arms from Gurdeep Singh, an accused accomplice of Jagtar Singh Hawara. Gurdeep Singh’s extended family members were interviewed by ENSAAF for their report; because of their relation to Gurdeep Singh, they have been harassed, illegally detained, and tortured by Indian police.
Another detainee, Jagtar Singh, is the nephew of Gurdeep Singh … The police tortured Jagtar Singh, subjecting him to electric shocks, among other methods, and had to hospitalize him after the torture.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.