NHRC issues notice to Punjab govt

The National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Punjab government on a complaint filed by a human rights organisation that it has been threatened with dire consequences for investigating the mass cremation case.

NHRC sources told United News of India that the commission has directed the chief secretary, Punjab government, to reply to the notice within three weeks.

Commission chairperson Justice M N Venkatchalliah has also asked its secretary general R V Pillai, to whom the complaint was addressed, to talk to the chief secretary about the issue.

The Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab, the human rights organisation which received the threats, alleged that its member Ram Narayan Kumar received a call at his home last week that ''he would be bumped off if he came to Amritsar for further investigation into the case''.

The caller refused to identify himself, but he spoke Hindi with a Punjabi style and intonation, the complaint said.

In its complaint to the NHRC, the organisation -- the petitioner in the Punjab mass cremation case heard by the Commission -- said that circumstances indicate that the intimidation is connected with the subject of the case.

The Committee said that documentation of human rights violation cases in the state is almost entirely the outcome of Kumar's work in the last ten years. He collected the material which exposed the mass cremations in the state, an issue which is now being examined by the NHRC, it said.

Earlier, Kumar was detained by some unidentified persons at the airport while he was leaving for Austria on the night of January 19-20 and questioned for several hours about the subject of his second book as a result of which he missed his flight also. The nhrc is examining the complaint in this regard. But inspite of the threat, mr kumar and other members of the committee intend to make several visits to the state in connection to the case and mr kumar has already left for amritsar, the complaint said. Mr kumar has done pioneering work in documenting the details of the bodies were cremated as ''unclaimed and unidentified'' by the punjab police in the early 1990's, during the fag end of militancy in the state. At three cremation grounds at durgina temple, amritsar tarn taran and patti, the complaint said. The committee alleged that ''it is evident that someone is anxious , even desperate, to stop the full exposer of the cremation ground matter and related things''. ''it seems unlikely that anyone other the punjab police could be so anxious,'' it added.

mr kumar, who has written two books on the recent problems and militancy in punjab, was to go to amritsar on september 12 for ascertaining the claims based on human rights violation. But he received this threat on septembeer 8, the complaint said. earlier in june 1996 some armed men attacked mr kumar in amritsar district and after beating him badly they took away the tapes and notes in which his investigation regarding the case was recorded. It is significant that they took nothing else, the complaint mentioned. Ruling akali dal's human rights wing general secretary jaswant singh khalra, who was engaged in a similar work was allegedly abducted by policemen in september 1995 from his residence in amritsar and was later declared a case of ''disappearance'' by the police, the complaint alleged. On direction of the supreme court, the central bureau of investigation probed the mass cremation case and submitted its report to the apex court last year. The cbi report identified around 585 bodies completely, 274 partially while about 1200 remained nidentified. In december last, the supreme court authorised nhrc to examine the human rights violation in the mass cremation case and evolve modalities for ascertaining the claims for compensation to the kith and kin of the deceased. The committee has also ladged a complaint in this connection with punjab chief minister parkash singh badal and state director general of police p c dogra. EARLIER REPORTS: Appoint special officers to settle Punjab compensation claims: NHRC
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