Pan­thic par­ties -Dal Khalsa and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) have de­cided to ob­serve the 72nd In­ter­na­tional Hu­man Rights Day on 10 De­cem­ber in Sri­na­gar to fo­cus world at­ten­tion on the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing sta­tus of the rights of the peo­ple of Kash­mir and the re­pres­sive and anti-peo­ple poli­cies of the Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment since Au­gust 5. It would be in­ter­est­ing to see whether the Sikh lead­ers will make it to Sri­na­gar in the wake of the iron cur­tain be­tween Kash­mir and the rest of the world. 

TO EX­PRESS UN­EQUIV­O­CAL SOL­I­DAR­ITY WITH THE RIGHTS OF THE PEO­PLE OF KASH­MIR, to urge  more ef­fec­tive mea­sures by the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity and to fo­cus on the lack of in­ter­est by the gov­ern­ment of In­dia and the In­dian peo­ples to the plight of Kash­miris who have been blocked from the rest of civil­i­sa­tion through an on­line em­bargo, no ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic, vir­tu­ally no school­ing and ed­u­ca­tion, with the Kash­miri lead­er­ship in prison since 5 Au­gust 2019, Dal Khalsa, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Am­rit­sar) and other Pan­thic al­lies have de­cided to ob­serve the World Hu­man Rights Day on the soil of Kash­mir, where the worst hu­man rights vi­o­la­tions have oc­curred dur­ing 2019.

Giv­ing a call to hu­man rights de­fend­ers to join the peace­ful sit-in at Lal Chowk on De­cem­ber 10, party spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh said that ac­tivists of both the par­ties led by Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and Harpal Singh Cheema will pro­ceed to­wards Kash­mir from Am­rit­sar, Gur­daspur and Hoshiarpur on De­cem­ber 9 and reach Sri­na­gar the next morn­ing. He said United Akali Dal pres­i­dent Gur­deep Singh Bhatinda and Akal Fed­er­a­tion head Nar­ien Singh will also join the march.

In re­play to a ques­tion by the me­dia, Kan­warpal Singh said that “we are ready to face the mu­sic in case the gov­ern­ment stops them from hold­ing a le­git­i­mate protest even on World Hu­man Rights Day.”

Be­ing ge­o­graph­i­cal neigh­bours of Kash­mir, it is the duty of Sikhs of Pun­jab to rise to the oc­ca­sion and con­tinue to protest the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing hu­man rights sit­u­a­tion in Kash­mir, said Dal Khalsa lead­ers at a press con­fer­ence held at the party of­fice in Am­rit­sar.

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh, flanked by party gen­eral sec­re­tary Paramjit Singh Tanda and Sikh Youth of Pun­jab pres­i­dent Paramjeet Singh Mand said their groups would ob­serve the rights day with the peo­ple of Kash­mir who have suf­fered the gravest abuses of hu­man rights. “The fun­da­men­tal rights of the peo­ple of Kash­mir are our pri­mary con­cern and it will be our en­deav­our to high­light the plight of Kash­miris”.

Dal Khalsa ap­pealed to all hu­man rights bod­ies and civil rights groups world­wide to spare a thought for the peo­ple of Kash­mir when they ob­serve the World Hu­man Rights Day in their re­spec­tive states and coun­tries.

“The sup­pressed peo­ple of Kash­mir need suc­cour, sup­port and an in­ter­na­tional voice to up­hold their rights.”

De­rid­ing in­ter­na­tional bod­ies for only pay­ing lip ser­vice to the cause of Kash­mir, Dal Khalsa ob­served that  “The si­lence or even the lack­lus­tre ap­proach of those who are aware of the sit­u­a­tion is even more dis­turb­ing. The UN in­ter­ven­tion on Kash­mir should im­pact the de­ci­sion-mak­ing lead­ers of New Delhi and not just re­main con­fined to record books.”

De­rid­ing in­ter­na­tional bod­ies for pay­ing only lip ser­vice to the cause of Kash­mir, the Dal Khalsa leader said, “The sup­pressed peo­ple of Kash­mir need suc­cour, sup­port and an in­ter­na­tional voice to up­hold their rights.”

On the oc­ca­sion of Hu­man Rights Day, Dal Khalsa will also voice con­cern about sys­tem­atic de­nial of jus­tice in Pun­jab in the Maur Bomb blast case, the Be­hbal Kalan fir­ing case and Bar­garhi sac­ri­lege cases.

Com­ing down harshly on the BJP gov­ern­ment for its al­leged U-turn in an­nounce­ment of com­mu­ta­tion of death sen­tence to life im­pris­on­ment for Bal­want Singh Ra­joana, Kan­warpal Singh said, “the Modi dis­pen­sa­tion has played fraud on Sikhs that too in the name of giv­ing spe­cial re­mis­sion to Sikh pris­on­ers on the sa­cred oc­ca­sion of 550th Parkash Purab Of Guru Nanak.” 

The Dal Khalsa will also take the cause of cus­to­dial tor­ture, il­le­gal de­ten­tion and ha­rass­ment of un­der­tri­als, the preva­lence of ar­chaic laws, like 124-A, UAPA, de­nial of re­prieve to po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers and spe­cial con­ces­sions to po­lice per­son­nel re­spon­si­ble for hu­man rights abuses.

Com­ing down harshly on the BJP gov­ern­ment for its al­leged U-turn in an­nounce­ment of com­mu­ta­tion of death sen­tence to life im­pris­on­ment for Bal­want Singh Ra­joana, Kan­warpal Singh said, “the Modi dis­pen­sa­tion has played fraud on Sikhs that too in the name of giv­ing spe­cial re­mis­sion to Sikh pris­on­ers on the sa­cred oc­ca­sion of 550th Parkash Purab Of Guru Nanak.”

“The In­dian lead­er­ship is ha­bit­ual of ditch­ing the Sikhs since 1947 and the tra­di­tional Akali lead­er­ship is im­mune in fac­ing such be­tray­als and em­bar­rass­ments,” he lamented.

Dal Khalsa also ex­pressed full sol­i­dar­ity with the scores of ac­tivists and hu­man rights de­fend­ers lan­guish­ing in pris­ons across In­dia.