Khaira welcomes initiative of IPT to ensure justice to families of those killed in fake encounters and extra judicial killings

Jalandhar, April 3, 2017: Welcoming the initiative of The Independent People’s Tribunal (IPT) to ensure justice to the families of those killed in fake encounters and extra judicial killings, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, MLA, Bholath, today said in the same breath “I demand stringent criminal proceedings against those responsible for such grave human rights violations”.
Addressing the media persons here today, he said it’s a matter of great shame and dejection, that no justice has been rendered to the families of victims killed in fake encounters and extra judicial killings during the period of militancy in Punjab. Similarly, the families of 2097 unidentified bodies that were illegally cremated in Punjab during the same period, have been running from pillar to post for last more than 25 years for justice. He said he is saddened to further add, that no meaningful punishment has been meted out to those police officers allegedly responsible for such large scale fake encounters, which is nothing but a blot on the democracy of India, its judicial system and the executive.
He said nobody and no reason can justify such gruesome killings through fake encounters and extra judicial measures in today’s modern world, when we have a proper constitutional mechanism to award punishment to those guilty of any crime. It is common knowledge, that the then Government of Punjab had allegedly issued verbal orders to the Punjab Police to eliminate people in fake encounters, on the pretext to curb militancy and save the unity and integrity of the country. This erroneous decision of those in power at that time is nothing but grave violation of our constitution, besides blatant human rights violations. As stated earlier, when we have a proper criminal justice system enforced under our constitution, where even the hardest core criminals are supposed to be given an opportunity to defend themselves, there is no justification whatsoever for cold blooded killings.
Further, he said by defending the rights of those killed in extra judicial killings he is not trying to justify the actions of the then militants, as he also strongly condemn the killing of thousands innocent peoples and officers of the police force, but the “eye for an eye” policy adopted by the Punjab Police can never be justified.
He said “it is astonishing, that while the BJP led Gujarat government has proposed life sentence for killing a cow, there seems to be no value of human life. If the BJP is so serious to ensure justice to the rights of cows, I am sure they should not dither to order a thorough time bound investigation into the sensational matter of fake encounters and illegitimate forceful cremation of thousands of bodies in Punjab.”