From: udcrusd@meaddata.com (Sylvia D'Cruz)
Subject: Terror in Punjab
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 15:41:17 GMT
Distribution: soc.culture.indian

Similar crimes are committed, by Indian men on the refugees that come across
from Bangladesh, Nepal and other neighbouring countries. 

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               Proprietary to the United Press International 1992

                      October  3, 1992, Saturday, BC cycle

BY AJAY BHARADWAJ

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   Citizens in  India's  Sikh-dominated Punjab state say they are caught between
the devil and the deep blue sea -- harassed and tormented both by the security
forces and underground separatists waging a hit-and-run campaign of violence.

    Sikh villagers voice helplessness in the face of the onslaught from the
custodians of law and the religious extremists fighting for a Sikh homeland.

    ''Nobody cares for us,'' lamented Gurbachan Singh, a peasant.

    While security forces arbitrarily detain and torture innocent villagers, the
gun-toting Sikh rebels extort money and  rape  young women and girls.

    Amritsar, along the border with Pakistan, is the seat of the Golden Temple,
the holiest Sikh shrine, and the center of the separatist rebellion.

    The lawlessness in Amritsar and other parts of Punjab helped the militants
to branch out into petty crime, according to local residents.

    Harbhajan Singh, a farmer of Chachewali hamlet near Amritsar, recounted how
his neighbors helped him overpower three insurgents who broke into his home
around midnight and brazenly demanded sex with his wife and daughter.

    ''How can we witness the modesty of our women being outraged? We will prefer
to die than to let such things happen,'' said Singh, who now lives in constant
fear of reprisal by the guerrillas.

    All Sikh men use the title ''Singh,'' which means Lion.

    Not far from Chachewali is the village of Dugowal, where a group of
extremists kidnapped the two teenage daughters of a widow and kept them as
concubines in their hideout, local residents said.

    When one of the girls became pregnant, she was sent home after three months.
The other was used as a sex slave for another three months by the militants
before they shot and killed her, the residents said.

    Similar tales of abduction,  rape  and slavery have been reported from many
other hamlets.

    In the village of Bhandari, also near Amritsar, religious zealots sought to
mask their activity by forcibly marrying an 18-year-old girl to one of their
comrades, then using the bride as a communal sex slave. Two months later the
girl's body was found dumped on a farm.

    ''The plight of such women who survive becomes pitiable because they cannot
face society again,'' said Kaptan Singh, the ''sarpanch,'' or village head, of
Bhandari.

    The headman said local citizens now were scared to let women even work on
the farms.

    The extremists, who hope to create a homeland called ''Khalistan,'' or Land
of the Pure, also regularly extort money from traders, farmers and small
businessmen by threatening to abduct or kill those who do not pay.

    Kripal Singh, a farmer who already has paid three large ransoms to deter the
rebels from targeting him or his relatives, said the insurgents use religious
causes as excuses to extort money from citizens.

    ''Sometimes they want to build a memorial. At other times they need money
for a temple,'' he said.

    Police elsewhere in  India  have a bad name, but in Punjab they are viewed
as terrorists by common citizens. Punjabis, whether Sikhs or Hindus, do not dare
to seek the help of the police.

    For more than a decade, the security forces have waged a war against
terrorist-related violence in the Punjab. Not only have they failed to quell the
insurgency, they also have lost the confidence of most citizens.

    Residents complain police harass them through rough search operations, using
excessive force and arbitrarily detaining. Innocent villagers are tortured by
police trying to extract information about the militants, the residents say.

    Gurbachan Singh was arrested by police a day after some extremists forced
their way into his home and demanded to spend the night there. Police accused
him of harboring the militants and tortured him for three weeks in an attempt to
make him reveal his guerrilla ''connections.''

    ''If the militants come to my house armed with sophisticated weapons, how
can I shut the door on their face unless I am prepared to die?'' asked Singh.

    Police excesses not only alienate local citizens from the government, they
also aid recruitment to the insurgent ranks.

    Harbhajan Singh, who resigned as headman of his hamlet to protest police
''atrocities,'' said persistent excesses by security forces against a dozen
village families drove four youths to join one of the several underground
secessionist groups.

    One of the youths was the son of Amrit Kaur, who said her son became a
victim of frequent police detention after he was forced by militants to carry
a consignment of illicit arms to a hideout. In anger, he joined the rebels even
though he originally had little sympathy for them, she said.

    Thousands of people have perished in the insurgency in Punjab, a prosperous
agricultural state of 16 million people.

    The extremists frequently target unarmed civilians in public places with
automatic rifles and stage bank heists. The security forces have been accused by
human rights groups of killing suspects after their arrest in stage-managed
shootouts.

    The lawlessness in Punjab has helped the militants to branch out into petty
crime, according to local residents.

    Citizens have learned not to trust anyone. They dread both the militants and
the police.

-- 
Sylvia D. D'Cruz