Chandigarh/ Nawanshahr (November 15, 2013): It is learnt that a month after the Punjab Police had told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the names of people going abroad during the days of militancy in Punjab were blindly added to “black lists” terming them as “terrorists”, the police told the HC that it had deleted the name of one such victim who had approached the court seeking direction to get his name deleted from the infamous list.
Taking up a petition by Shingara Singh for direction to the police to delete his name from the list of “non-hardcore terrorists” in police records at the Behram police station (Nawanshahr), Punjab law officer on November 14, 2013 produced a letter in Justice RC Gupta’s court.
Bhagwant Singh, DSP Banga, said this in the high court during the resumed hearing of a petition filed by one Shingara Singh, originally from Punjab, now a resident of America.
Shingara Singh through his counsel Advocate H C Arora had moved the High Court seeking directions to Punjab police to delete his name from the list of “non-hardcore terrorists” maintained in the records of Police Station, Behram (District SBS Nagar). Singh said he was never involved in any criminal activity. The High Court had sought response from the Punjab government in this regard.
It may be recalled on September 08, 2013 Punjab police DSP Bhagwant Singh, in his reply filed in the HC, said “during the period of terrorism, all persons who went abroad, as per report of Crime Branch, CID Security and secret information, their names were mentioned in the list of hardcore terrorists”.
He however admitted that there is no record showing the involvement of Shingara Singh in any such activities and added that Punjab Police had no objection if his name was deleted from the list of “non-hardcore terrorists”.
Taking serious exception to the contents of the affidavit filed by the DSP, Justice Ram Chander Gutpa, verbally expressed shock and dismay over the conduct of Punjab Police in not voluntarily deleting the name of the petitioner from the list and instead leaving it to the HC to order deletion.
It is notable that the so-called black list of Sikhs is more like a harassment tactics aimed at harassing and discouraging the Sikh diaspora sections and thereby curb their activism.
It is notable that in January 2010 a 2-year-old New Zealand boy and his Punjab-born Sikh mother were barred from entering India after their names appeared on a so-called blacklist. The Sikh woman’s husband was active in Sikh diaspora activism in New Zealand and his wife and son were blacklisted by India supposedly for his involvement in protest against one of the Indian ministers was involved in planning and organizing the Sikh genocide 1984.
In January 2009 Lakhwinder Singh Gill who currently reside in Canada, was denied entry in India. He was not even allowed to visit his native place in 2011 June to attend his father’s funeral despite being his name was not there in any of the lists disclosed by India.