On International Human Rights day, Dal Khalsa raises the banner of human rights violations in Punjab, Kashmir and Central India.

Marching through the streets of upcoming town Bathinda on the Punjab-Rajasthan border on the occasion of the 70th International Human Rights Day, activists of the Dal Khalsa, Malwa Youth Federation, Sikh Youth of Punjab, lawyers from Bathinda Bar Association and social activists sought justice in Punjab and Kashmir for those who extrajudicially killed and who disappeared involuntarily during the last decades of the last century.

While the Bargari Insaaf Morcha talked about justice having been done in the case of the Behbal killings, the Dal Khalsa marchers demanded arrest of the guilty police for those killings as well as those responsible for the killing of youth in Gurdaspur in 2009.

Activists carrying placards and photographs of victims of state repression marched in unison with war cries for justice. A banner held by an ageing mother pleaded, “If my son is dead tell me where you cremated him, if he’s alive, show me his face”.

On the day of human rights, it was hard to ignore the increasing cases of mob lynching in the Hindi heartlands of India. Dal Khalsa mocked the government shouting, “In Modi’s India cows have rights, humans don’t.”

“For the oppressed people who were struggling for their rights, all declarations of the United Nations are hollow and meaningless as there is no attempt by the international forum to ensure their implementation in this part of the world,” said Dal Khalsa president Harpal Singh Cheema.

“We are always told that India is not at fault. If that is true then why is there hesitation in allowing the UNHRC, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to officially examine the cases of rights abuses in Punjab, Kashmir and elsewhere,” he added.

Dal Khalsa spokesperson sought the release of political activists Masrat Alam, Jaggi Johal, Vara Vara Rao and others detained in the Bhima Koregaon case. He expressed deep regret that the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Court has passed the inhumane order of not allowing medical aid to seriously ailing Prof. Saibaba lodged in the Pune prison. He said that none of the mainstream parties -Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party or Aam Aadmi Party had any human rights agenda.

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Social activist Lakhwinder Singh, popularly known as Lakha Sidhana addressed the gathering at Dr Ambedkar park. He chided the Punjab CM Amarinder Singh for toeing the Hindutva school of thought. Advocates Ranjit Singh Jalal, Harpal Singh Khara and others also wholeheartedly participated in the rally.

Bathinda, 13 December 2018, WSN News Bureau