Kharag Singh Posted June 10, 2007 Report Share Posted June 10, 2007 Amritsar: As far as nearly everyone knew, Gurnam Singh Bandala was gunned down in a shootout with police 13 years ago during the waning days of an uprising by Sikh separatists. That is, until Bandala turned up alive, living as a preacher outside this northern Indian city. "It's the perfect cover, being dead," says Bandala, the classic image of a towering Sikh with his white robe, deep blue turban and long gray beard. Authorities now believe an innocent farmer was deliberately killed by police so that they could present his body as Bandala's and collect a bounty equal to $60,000 (Dh220,200). "I thought I was so lucky," Bandala said in an interview. But "there was no luck. There was murder." Bandala's re-emergence is one of nearly a dozen similar cases that have surfaced recently in India. The faked police shootouts have shaken an already troubled justice system in a country that touts itself as a rights-respecting democracy where the rule of law prevails. Poor system Former police officials and human rights activists say the fake encounters are the brutal result of a system dominated by poorly educated, badly trained and corruptible police, dirty politicians and stagnated courts where justice, if it ever comes, can be delayed for years. "Because cases take years to be settled, because witnesses don't show up, because bribes are paid, criminals get away. So the police resort to shortcuts," says Sankar Sen, a former policeman who's now a fellow at the Institute for Social Sciences in New Delhi. The exact number of fake encounters is impossible to determine. Police officials acknowledge only a handful over the past two decades and say they are isolated cases. But the former and current officers say the problem is more widespread, and rights activists estimated the number must be in the hundreds, if not thousands. They point to the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared, many after being detained by police during one of the myriad insurgencies here in the last three decades. An estimated 3,000 people were lost without explanation during the Sikh uprising in Punjab in the 1980s and early 1990s. About 10,000 are missing in Kashmir, where an Islamist rebellion festers today. Three cases In Punjab, the fight for a separate Sikh state left about 25,000 people dead, including 1,700 police. Bandala is one of three former separatist militants who were said to have been killed in shootouts but who recently turned up alive. "Somebody was killed in their place," says Ranjan Lakhanpal, a human rights lawyer. "We believe there are many more." In Kashmir, police this year began investigating five cases, all involving security forces who may have killed innocents and claimed they were rebels to earn rewards. And in Gujarat, a western state riven by tensions between Hindus and Muslims, three policemen and three senior officials have been arrested for their alleged role in the 2005 slaying of a Muslim couple. However, the Kashmir and Gujarat probes are exceptions and most allegations never are fully checked, says Ajai Sahni, former chief of India's Intelligence Bureau, part of the country's law-enforcement apparatus. "They're the result of dogged investigations by good policemen. That rarely happens." One reason few cases are investigated is that most Indians aren't interested. Wealthier Indians in particular have long accepted extrajudicial killings disguised as shootouts as the most expedient way to get rid of criminals. There's even a reverential term for officers with the highest tallies: "encounter specialists." Police kill not only career criminals, but also stage shootouts to get promotions or rewards. That was the case with Bandala. Bandala already was in hiding for a decade when he read, in July 1994, about his own death in a newspaper. He worried at first, "then I realised the police wouldn't be chasing me anymore," he said. At the same time, a woman who lived a few villages away started looking for her husband, Sukhpal Singh. According to court documents filed by Singh's family, police came to their home in August and picked up the farmer, then 26, for questioning. "He disappeared," says his widow, Dalbir Kaur. "We've never seen him again." A senior Punjab police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains sensitive, said authorities believe Singh was killed in Bandala's place. His body was presented as that of Bandala's and then cremated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chatanga Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 I hope the police get their punishment for this, but seeeing as under ravan raj SIkhs killed over 23years ago have never received justice, i dont really think that ravan hakoomat will punish any of the ravan sena. india is the mother that kills its children. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jassasingh Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 well i m sorry if i offend some one but these things always happen in civil wars .... i mean if ur going in a battle and say to ur opponent if u hurt me in any ways i will get u in court ... then why are u in the battle ... and secondly why you want to govt ur fighting against to support you ??? if they are supporting you then why are u fighting against them .... ??? writing letters and protesting for justice according to me is just like in 1700s sikhs protesting out side lahore fort against the killing of sikhs by mir manu ... or writting letters to kabul for things done to sikhs by ahmad shah abdali ... these things were there then also ... but singhs choose right way ... maffi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaheediyan Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Very interesting point Jassa singh Ji. But I think the difference is that the panth were one during the periods mentioned above, and so collectively accepted punishment/reward... In the case of 1984 onwards, there were factions in the panth, not everyone wanted Khalistan or agreed with Baba Jarnail Singh Ji's actions. I think the point to note is that those who were at peace with the Gov't i.e. Sikhs in Delhi etc, were targeted in a systematic way for reasons other than 1984... It is the genocide of innocents that weren't harbouring or supporting the freedom fighters that is actually the issue. In the Vada Ghallughara, the innocents (women, children etc) were actually part of the 1 Khalsa... It's a slightly different and more complex situation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chatanga Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 i mean if ur going in a battle and say to ur opponent if u hurt me in any ways i will get u in court ... then why are u in the battle ... and secondly why you want to govt ur fighting against to support you ??? if they are supporting you then why are u fighting against them .. jassa what you say above is correct. However what we are talking about is the people who did not in any way participate against the govt. Young men who were killed becasue they looked like terrorists. The ones who were in the batlle accepted shaheedi but these people were few and far between. Open your eyes jassa, you live in india but you seem to have been asleep. And you may not have meant to offend but you have. Should the world's largest hypocritical democracy not abide by the geneva convention? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jassasingh Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 yaar osstime halat iss toon we marrey see ... like jhan khan ... who got bhai tarru singh killed ... there were slogans our historu granths record of that time ... " sir pe jiske hoven kess rehan na deyo apne desh " " kessan dhari jo narr hoyi marrun usse tatkal sohi " everyone who is kessa dhari kill him on sight .... was the same situation in 1984 ???? vadda ghallu ghara 40000 persons killed in one day .... did singhs complaint to abdali ... because they got shahidi .... and shahidi is amol .... there is nothing in this world which can match shahidi not even thousands years of taap .... but whats today instead of getting proud our singhs got killed fighting for religion or they kept sikh identity and they got killed for that but didnt participated in any thing ... those who didnt fought ... are they not shaheeds ??? if they are why are we protesting for them .... they have got highest place in darbar of guru gobind singh ... yet we believe its all in justice he should have lived .... its high time to get what is a shahhedi only those who got killed in harimandir sahib or in real police encounters .... or every one who got killed by police in any way .... if all are shaheeds even fake encounter singhs ... then we are just disrespecting them for crying and protesting against the govt for them ... we cant take our on revenge we need govts help for that .... fathe 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chatanga Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 right now you are discussing whether they are shaheeds or not. This has been discussed in another section somewhere else. This is not what we are discussing now. What we are discussing are the fake encounters which the ravan sena used to kill/remove thousands of Sikhs. Illegally. that is the keyword here "illegally". If the ravan raj govt said yes we have killed those people and we are killers, then we could say that they have at least admitted that they are rakhsas. However the rakhsas claim to be saints, and upholders of international law, and ethics. they are rakhsas in devtas clothing. why pretend to be the worlds largest democracy? india is the snake that eats its children. so why are they hypcrits? and why are you a hypocrit jassa? chatanga 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jassasingh Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 hypocrit lol ... challo apni apni soch hai .... in rajasthan they killed 13 policemen got their 20 people killed destroyed property of crores and got there demands full filled in 7 days ... sikhs protested peacefully with banners on no swords in air no damage to property .... lets protest have faith in govt .... and that sirsa wala baba is still doing ash in other words he defeated akal takth sahib .... lets keep protesting .... fathe 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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