(Deccan Herald - November 14, 2004)
Families of victims unhappy with NHRC compensation
In 1995 an activist disappeared mysteriously after he exposed secret cremations of many bodies. His wife moved SC to seek justice.
CHANDIGARH, DHNS:
“Too little and too late.” That is the general reaction to the Rs 2.5-lakh compensation awarded by the National Human Rights Commission to the next of kin of those who disappeared while in police custody during militancy in Punjab.
Eight years after the apex court remitted the matter of disappearances and illegal cremation of 2,097 bodies during 1984-1994 as “unclaimed” in Punjab to the NHRC, the Commission has awarded compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh each to only 109 of the affected families.
These are the families whose relatives, like the rest, were reported missing after capture by the police from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Majitha areas during the Sikh insurgency in Punjab.
Paramjit Kaur Khalra, General Secretary of the Association of Families of the Disappeared in Punjab (AFDP) has termed the compensation awarded by the Commission as “a poor joke”.
Ms Khalra who had taken up cudgels on behalf of the families after her husband Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist, mysteriously disappeared in 1995, asks, “What about the other families who have been left out by the Commission ?”
Dismissing the award, Ms Paramjit said the families had sought a compensation of Rs 18 lakh, a job to one member of every affected family and pension. “It is a poor joke played on the hapless families”, she remarked. The father of another victim remarked that the compensation amount was not “dignified” adding “we are not here to sell our son’s body”.
The NHRC, under the remit of the SC, has been conducting an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the cremation by the Punjab police of 2,097 bodies as “unclaimed/unidentified” in the police districts of Amritsar, Majitha and Tarn Taran. The Commission has been inquiring into all incidents referred to as “extra-judicial eliminations”, “involuntary disappearances”, “fake encounters”, “abductions and killings” leading to cremation of 2,097 bodies as “unclaimed”.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which inquired into the cases submitted its final report to the apex court on December 10,1996 identifying 2,097 illegal cremations in the three police districts of Punjab. The apex court had remitted the matter to the NHRC to examine if there had been any other violations of human rights in relation to the deceased and to determine any compensation to the families of the victims.
Picked up illegally
The whole saga was brought to light by human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra when he released official documents in January 1995 claiming that security agencies in Punjab had been secretly cremating thousands of bodies labelled as unclaimed. He said these cremations were of those people who were picked up illegally by the Punjab police for interrogation about their links with the separatist movement in the state during 1984-1994.
However, Khalra mysteriously disappeared and his wife, Paramjit Kaur, approached the Supreme Court through an NGO called “Committee for Information and Initiatives on Punjab.” The petition sought production of Khalra and also direction for initiation of punitive action against officers responsible for many illegal cremations in Punjab.
Though the Commission has been hearing cases of 2,097 cases, compensation was awarded in only 109 of the cases where Punjab government had accepted to have taken the deceased in their custody. The petitions have alleged that in most cases, the detained persons were shown as having died in fake encounters.
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