FREE PAL SINGH

Bhai Pal Singh Ji

The illustrious Punjab police are at it again. Once again an innocent Sikh has been framed, arrested and tortured by the protectors of the law in East Punjab.  This time it was Bhai Pal Singh, 60, a French citizen, Sikh preacher and humantarian worker, especially among the poor farmers of Punjab.

Although the cops say that they dug up weapons, ammunition and explosives, the neighbours say that nothing was dug at all.  Is it possible that the Punjab police, not noted for their good intelligence (pun intended), have mistaken "Tat Khalsa," a religious movement with "Babbar Khalsa," a proKhalistan group, believed to be terroristic by some.  Here is one instance of what seems to be such confusion:   Tat Khalsa supporting activities of Sikh terrorists, claims Punjab police.

Don't be fooled by the turbans;  these are not friends of the Sikhs!

There is so much I would like to say, but words fail me.  We all know about the excesses of the Punjab Police.  They would not hesitate to torture even to death an innocent Sikh man who has done nothing but good.  France has done nothing, although he is a French citizen.   It falls on the shoulders of the worldwide Sangat to champion this dear brother and make his case known to the world.  Is this not one more argument that we need our own country to respond to such things? 

One of the men arrested with him has been severely tortured and is near death. Pal Singh's health is very frail and it is mostly likely he could not survive torture at the gentle hands of the Punjab police.  Harminder Kaur, in the Facebook page, Free Pal Singh, reports that "a familly friend has visited Pal Singh and said he was very weak."
 
So what can any of us do, other than sit and wring our hands?  The first thing to do is to be informed.  Here is some help to get you started.

Information is not easy to come by.  This in itself is suspicious to me.  I am relying primarily on two Facebook pages, Free Pal Singh and Voices For Freedom.   I ask you to go there and join these two pages.  Facebook is sometimes silly and frivolous, true;  it is also very powerful. 

First, the chronology, as Reported by Voices For Freedom:
Timeline of events:

Based on the reports received by Voices For Freedom

-17th July: Pal Singh was arrested at 7:00pm, as per an eye witness.
-17th July: Pal Singh was dropped at his house at 1pm.

-22nd July: Pal Singh was again arrested at at 1:30pm. No charges were levied against him.

-23rd July: The Panjab Police raids his home in Village Dandowal, Jalandhar district at 3 different times on the same day: 4:00 am, 1:00pm and 7:00pm while he was still in custody. No charges were levied on him.

-26th July: Pal Singh legal counsel, Rajwinder Singh Bains, files habeas corpus for Pal Singh

-27th July: Panjab Police presents Pal Singh in front of the magistrate late at night and gets his remand extended till 30th July.

- morning 28th July: the habeas corpus petition was taken up by Justice Arvind Kumar who had appointed a warrant officer to trace Pal Singh
- afternoon 28th July: The Panjab Police in a press conference says that Pal Singh was arrested from Jalandhar. As from eye witness’s and reports received by VFF, which are corroborated by the Times of India report, Pal Singh was arrested from his home village, a clear discrepancy.

- 30th July: Punjab police presented Pal Singh in front of the judge and requested another remand of 7 days, the judge allowed 1 day

- 31st July, Punjab police presented Pal singh in court and the out the outcome – not known yet

Based on information from a village fellow Gurmukh Singh who reported, said that the Panjab Police took Pal Singh to his fields alone, sat with him for almost an hour in the field and then took him to his residence and from their drove him back to the jail. No news or journalists were invited and nothing was seen being carried with them. Next morning zeenews reports that that “Pal Singh told the interrogators that he had kept a large quantity of explosives, arms and ammunitions near his residence at his village Dhandowal. He led a police team to the spot and handed over the consignment consisting of 15 Kilogram RDX, 3 detonators, 45 caliber sub-machine gun, 150 cartridges, 45 caliber, 1 Magazine AK 47, 100 cartridges of AK 47 and 3 packets fuse wire, the police added”

Gaping gaps appear in the story requiring a re-investigation and a CBI enquiry. Voices For Freedom has contacted the National Human Rights Commission in India, seeking the safety of Pal Singh and to initiate a CBI inquiry.

Panjab police has a nefarious record of violating human rights and making concocted stories.

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Next, a few questions and links:

Who is Pal Singh?
 

What is the official story of his arrest?  This is a lot of nonsense, but it is useful to know the official story.

Click on picture to see larger, readable page.

A photo from Times of India of their story. 

What really happened at his arrest? (See the Timeline above)
What can I do?

Here is a list of human rights organisations that we would like to mobilise to help Bhai Pal Singh ji.  Please visit each of them asking for help for our brother.

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/

Avocats Sans Frontières
http://www.avocatssansfrontieres-france.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=173&Itemid=129&lang=en

The Advocates for Human Rights
http://www.mnadvocates.org/

Giste
http://www.gisti.org/

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/


International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances
http://www.icaed.org/the-coalition/


UN Watch
http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1277549/k.D7FE/UN_Watch__Monitoring_the_UN_Promoting_Human_Rights.htm

World Organisation Against Torture
http://www.omct.org/


Asian Human Rights Commission (Asia)
http://www.ahrchk.net/

Asian Centre for Human Rights (Asia)
http://www.achrweb.org/countries/india.htm

All pictures are from the Free Pal Singh Facebook page except that of the Punjab Police, which is from in.com.

Khaliblog Busniess

I have nicknamed The Road To Khalistan as the Khaliblog.  I hope you don't mind.

This blog has been around for quite a while now.  The first post is dated 26 January 2007.  That's not a huge amount of time, but long enough to maybe need a bit of housecleaning.  I notice it is loading rather slowly.  I know this can be annoying.  In order to speed things up, I'd like to clean up the sidebar.  I'd like your opinions on what should be removed to speed things up.   If you'd rather tolerate the slower loading and have me leave it as it is, I'd like to know that, as well.

Today, I have added a new link I hope you will use.  It is listed as Why Khalistan - 1.

About the header.  I have been asked several times in e-mails, "What is that building that Sant ji (or sometimes not such a complimentary name) is pointing at?"  I'm sure those of you in Occupied Khalistan and/or India recognise it, but the rest of you might not.  That is the Indian House of Parliament.  I am sure it annoys the GoI (Government of India) agents who regularly read this blog.

There has been so much controversy going on in the Panth that I have not been commenting on.  This is because I cannot see any good I could do by addressing these and I do see that I could possibly do some harm.  In this case, I think silence is my best move.  One of my aims is to unite the Panth, especially among the Khalsa.  Remember, whatever our differences we are sisters and brothers and we really do need each other.

One thing has happened that has me sad and angry and hurt.  I believe it is also something that all Sikhs can agree on.  That is the arrest of Pal Singh.  That needs a separate post which will be up soon. 

Picture:  Obeisance by Koshyk
Used under a Creative Commons Licence