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Truth Behind Twists
The PHRO should know
that the police in India are infamous for forcing those they are
torturing to make false confessions and are made to give names of
Sikh activists so this information can be used against them as
required at a later stage. The PHRO should therefore not be foolish
enough to make wild accusations
Last week an article appeared in the magazine Tehelka referring to a
secret recording of the interrogation of Shaheed Bhai Talwinder
Singh Parmar between 9 -14 October 1992. The recording was
supposedly made by retired Punjab Police DSP Harmail Singh Chandi,
who has for some strange reason decided 15 years later to now make
known the contents of his secret recordings that senior police
officers had asked to be destroyed.
It
has been reported that Sarbjit Singh Verka and Rajvinder Singh Bains
of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) flew to Canada along
with Harmail in June in an attempt to produce their findings before
the John Major Commission of Inquiry that is investigating the June
1985 blast. However, the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper in
Canada, has reported that a spokesman for the families of the
victims of the attack said that they knew nothing about any
statement by Talwinder Singh Parmar.
Chandi claims Talwinder Singh told him under interrogation and
before he was killed in an ‘encounter’ on 15 October 1992 that he
was acting on behalf of Lakhbir Singh Brar who had supposedly
arranged for the booking of the tickets from Vancouver to Tokyo.
However, why should Bhai Lakhbir Singh’s name emerge now, 22 years
later, when it has not been linked to the Air India disaster
previously? Were the Canadian police and intelligence waiting for
an Indian police officer to reveal who booked tickets on the Tokyo
flight as they could not work this out for themselves? Have over 22
years of police investigations that cost well over 100 million
dollars not yet been able to establish who booked tickets for one of
the flights?
Perhaps the timing and allegations that Bhai Lakhbir Singh is an
Indian agent by PHRO, based on a so-called revelation by an Indian
police officer responsible for torturing and killing the likes of
Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Singh has more to do with Panjab politics.
Badal is desperately attempting to discredit those that oppose him,
including the family of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and deflect
attention away from those raising concerns about Badal’s support for
the Sirsa Dera chief. Why is the PHRO, supposedly a human rights
organisation, convinced by ‘evidence’ produced from a police
interrogation just before Talwinder Singh was killed in police
custody?
 Readers should be aware it is the same PHRO ‘investigating’ team
that earlier this year supposedly obtained recordings of calls
tapped by the Indian intelligence agencies – something that is
obviously easy to do if you have contacts with Badal. PHRO used
these to try to implicate Bhai Jasbir Singh, another of Sant Jarnail
Singh Bhindranwale’s nephews, for trying to get Parkash Singh Badal
and Sukhbir Badal killed just before the state elections. It is no
coincidence that Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu of the Khalsa Action
Committee (KAC) was recently arrested on the orders of Badal and now
Bhai Jasbir Singh another key figure in the KAC is being targeted
again, by this smear campaign on his family.
In
an email exchange Kim Bolan, the notorious journalist for the
Vancouver Sun, has said Talwinder Singh ‘was brutally tortured so
what he said does not count in a court of law – people say anything
while they are being tortured.’ The PHRO should know that the
police in India are infamous for forcing those they are torturing to
make false confessions and are made to give names of Sikh activists
so this information can be used against them as required at a later
stage. The PHRO should therefore not be foolish enough to make wild
accusations against the family of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
obtained from confessional statements after torture by the Indian
police.
The important point is if Talwinder Singh, a Canadian national, was
arrested, interrogated and tortured for five or six days and then
killed in a staged encounter, the Punjab police and Indian
Government must be bought to account. Harmail Singh Chandi says he
first approached the Canadian police’s Air India Task Force in 2002
and information he provided came out during pre-trial arguments in
the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.
Bhagat Singh, Bhai Lakhbir Singh’s son speaking to Awaze Qaum from
Toronto said: ‘The accusations made in Tehelka are ridiculous. My
father only moved to Canada in April 1985 and he had nothing
whatsoever to do with the Air India disaster that would have taken
many months to plan. Indian police officers that admit to torturing
and killing Sikhs in custody to obtain confessions should never be
trusted.’
‘These media reports are merely designed to deflect attention away
from getting to the bottom of who was really responsible for taking
the lives of 329 innocent people 22 years ago. The only truth in
the article is the travesty of justice that is preventing my father
living a normal life with his family in Canada as he has a Red
Corner Interpol notice for an FIR lodged on April 19, 1984, at the
Moga police station. This accuses my father of several minor crimes,
including trespass and causing damage in excess of Rs.50 to
property. This was first revealed in the Frontline magazine in
January 2002, which according to the Indian Government made my
father one of the most wanted.’
Awaze Qaum approached the Sikh Federation (UK), the leading
political Sikh organisation in the UK for its comments. A spokesman
said: ‘To our knowledge Bhai Lakhbir Singh has never figured in the
22-year long investigation and this appears to be a complete
fabrication. The so-called statement by Bhai Talwinder Singh
produced in the Tehelka magazine contains many inaccuracies. For
example, to describe the Convenor of an international organisation
as a ‘functionary’ or to say there is a ‘jungle’ in British Columbia
appear to be the work of an Indian with a poor grasp of the English
language.’
 ‘It has been reported that Chandi may have approached the judicial
inquiry headed by John Major, but refused to testify once he arrived
in Ottawa in June claiming his life was in threat. The truth is if
he gave evidence and admitted to torturing a Canadian national he
can and should be arrested, charged and sent to prison in Canada.
Article 5.2 of the UN Convention against Torture requires the
Canadian State to prosecute in cases where a person commits acts of
torture if the alleged offender is present in Canada. In this case
not only was the offence against a Canadian national, but Chandi has
admitted torture and killing Talwinder Singh in custody. He is a
known offender through his own admission. The Federation has urged
leading Sikh organisations and lawyers in Canada to take this
forward so Indian police officers like Chandi can see how Sikhs
outside India will get justice.’
The last time Awaze Qaum approached Justice Ajit Singh Bains, the
Chair of the PHRO, he denied it had made allegations against Bhai
Jasbir Singh and claimed the statements issued on behalf of PHRO
were untrue. The Globe and Mail has reported that Air India inquiry
spokesman Michael Tansey commented ‘We're aware of this article [in
Tehelka], and we will explore this and any other allegations when
the hearings resume in the fall.’
The story in Tehelka merely reinforces the proposition first
publicly suggested by authors Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew,
two Canadian journalists, in their book entitled "Soft Target".
Namely, the Air India disaster was the work of the Indian Government
to discredit the Sikhs. The Commission will determine for itself if
this matter is important to the Inquiry.
If
Sikhs believe the Indian Government was behind the Air India
disaster and this was a conspiracy to discredit the Sikh
independence movement they should guard against believing the Indian
police. The PHRO are confusing matters by jumping to the wrong
conclusions and in the process helping the Indian Government by
deflecting attention away from their actions by trying to cause
trouble in Sikh circles.
(Courtesy Awaz-e-Qoum)
1 August, 2007
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