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------~, GAZETTE-------Vol 3 No.2
New Deihl
Rupees Two
Fortnightly
20 January-4 February 1988
Amnesty International Report on PAC Killings During Riots ~'azette
News Service
Amnesty Intarnational said in its report prepared in November 1987 that there was strong evidence that north Indian provincial police had deliberately killed dozens of unarmed civilians and caused dozens more to "disa'ppear" in the state of Uttar Pradesh earlier this year. The worldwide human rights organization says it believes the abuses were committed by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), which had been called in to help quell Hindu-Muslim / communal violence in May in the city of Meerut, about 60 km northeast of Delhi. The PAC ,. alleged to have dl.posed of some of the bodle. killed by throwing them ~ ,'. rivers and canal.. Other Itv:'le. are ..Id to have been bumed. At le• • t 80 bodle. have been recovered altogetherAmne. ty Intematlonal ..y. It ha. the name. of 29 victim. known to have been killed and of another 32 lI.ted a. "dl"ppeared". All were Mu.llm •. An Amnesty International report focuses on two incidents in and aro~nd Meerut in May and bases its findings on a range of sources that include first-hand accounts from victims or eye-witnesses. In the first incident, on 22 May, several hundred men from the Hashimpura area of Meerut were seen being taken away in. trucks by PAC member:s. Most ended up in police stations or
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jailS but several dozen were driven to the Upper Ganga canal , near Muradnagar, where
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eye-witnesses have said they were shot and their bodies thrown in the water.
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A student testified tha, t PAC members "were laking away all the young and old men of our
locality... we were brought down near a canal iate in the Continued on page 3
Riligion and Politics How Can They be Separated K.S. Khosla
FORUM
T
GAZEm
IN This Issue Page
o o o
Facts about Jodhpur Detenues Toward's a Mlllt'"t -Women's Movement
5 6
Harmandlr. The Abode 7 of God Window on Punjab 8
o o Short Story: Eylessln
10
Darkness
o Tamil Refugees o The Grouth of Sycophancy
he Prime Ministers's call some months ago for a national debate on how to separate religion from politics and the rj:lcent announcement by the Home Minister that the government was planning to bring forth legislation for the purpose are indeed laudatory. The need for such a law was never felt so strongly as now because of the danger to the country's unity and integrity by the divisive pulls by religious and communal forces. But will passing of law ' solve the problem?
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A sort of national debate on the issue has already started but given the past record of the national political parties, which have left no opportunity unavalled of Meklng vo. . on
religious, communal , ethnic and linguistic basis, it is doubtful if religion can be separated from politics for a long time to come. These political parties, including the Congress (I) . are not the instruments which will bring about this historic change unless they resolve to separate politics from religion . ' one- neecJ not go ' Into the record of each party .a. the recent action. of the leader. of Congre..(I), the party a..oelated with the country'. freedom and the talk of building up the nation, will suffice. Wnen Mrs. Indira Gandhi wa. pre.ldent of the All India Cong,... Committee, her pIIrty .....,.. In to .. illlI8nce
wIIh ... IIuIItn Leeaue In
kerala and the then party leeder. had ..Id that the Mu.llm league was not a communal party. Thl. remind. one of the .tatement of Mr. RaJlv Gandhi In Chandlgarh In may 1984, a month before Operation Blue.tar, that Jamall Singh the mo.t Bhlnderanwale, militant I.ader produced by the Sikh. 10 far, was a rellglou. ..Int. As a reaction to the events in Punjab, didn't Mrs. Indira Gandhi try to consolidate Hindu votes and she did admirably well. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi also/ won the last elections by launching a 'war ' cry' on the Annandpur Sahib Resolution and its threat to the unity and integrity of, the country. There was a subliminal
appeal to voters on a religious basis and his party won 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, surpassing the achievment of his own grandfather, Mr Jawharlal Nehru. The recent passing of the bill on the rights of Muslim women after divorce, them of which deprives whatever little right they had under the Indian Penal Code, is relevant to the debate. The question 'ih ~his country is not so much of sep~r.t~g religion from politics as of .separating politics 'fro'm religipn as our politicians, big ar\dsmall, had been and are exploiting religion for political ends. As the scope of this article is confined to Punjab, the need for separating religion from politics in the Continued on page ..